V 


APR  20  1918 


BV  660 

.H6 

Hobart, 

Alvah 

Sabin, 

1847- 

1930. 

Pedagogy  for 

ministers 

PEDAGOGY    FOR   MINISTERS 


PEDAGOGY  FOR 
MINISTERS 


AN  APPLICATION  OF  PEDAGOGICAL 
PRINCIPLES  TO  THE  PREACHING  AND 
OTHER    WORK    OF    THE     PASTOR 


BY 

ALVAH  SABIN  HOBART 

Professor  New  Testament  Interpretation  in  Crozer  Theological  Seminary 

Author  of  "Seed  Thoughts  for  Right  Living,"  "  Transplanted  Truths  from 

Ephesians,"  "The  Holy  Spirit,  Our  Silent  Partner,"  Etc. 


New  York 


Chicago 


Toronto 


Fleming   H.   Revell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  191 7,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  N.  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  St.,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:    100    Princes    Street 


PREFACE 

QOME  years  ago  a  school-teacher  friend  of 
^  mine  led  me  to  make  a  study  of  pedagogy. 
As  a  science  it  was  all  new  to  me.  In  my  col- 
lege days  there  was  no  such  study  in  the  cur- 
riculum. I  found  the  science  so  full  of  interest 
and  practical  usefulness  in  my  preaching  that 
when  I  took  my  place  as  a  teacher  of  young 
ministers  I,  on  my  own  initiative,  undertook  to 
give  as  an  elective  some  lectures  upon  it.  So 
many  expressions  came  to  me  appreciative  of 
the  study  that  I  have  been  led  to  put  a  condensa- 
tion of  those  lectures  into  this  form  for  the 
benefit  of  the  hundreds  of  men  in  our  corre- 
spondence course,  and  for  such  other  men  as  have 
not  had  the  benefit  of  such  study.  It  is,  as  will 
be  seen,  not  technical.  It  is  suggestive  only.  If 
the  "  seed  catches,'*  as  the  farmers  say,  it  will 
make  the  lawn  green. 

A.  S.  H. 

Crozer  Theological  Seminary. 


CONTENTS 


I.  The  Pastor  an  Educator 

11.  What  Is  Pedagogy? 

III.  Attention 

IV.  Words  as  Symbols 
V.  Metaphors  and  Similes 

VI.  Illustration    . 

VII.  Reasoning 

VIII.  The  Point  of  Contact 

IX.  Ideals 

X.  Self-Activity 

XI.  Motives    . 

XII.  Motives  (Continued) 

XIII.  Exposition 

XIV.  Doctrinal  Teaching 
XV.  Creeds  and  Liturgies 

XVI.  Pedagogy  in  the  Management 

OF  the  Church  . 

XVII.  Evangelistic  Pedagogy 


9 

23 

33 

45 

58 

65 

78 

90 

102 

116 

124 

134 

144 

153 
161 

170 

178 


Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all  na- 
tions; baptising  them  into  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit. — 
Matt.  28:19. 

THE  PASTOR  AN  EDUCATOR 


TtyrR.  SPXJRGEON  once  said  that  he  could  not 
'■'^-*'  talk  on  any  public  occasion  without  a  text. 
If  he  did  not  have  one  stated  he  had  one  in  mind. 
The  text  controlling  my  thought  in  these  chapters 
reads  as  follows: 

Go  ye,  therefore, 

Disciple  all  nations. 

Baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and 
of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever 
I  commanded  you. 

And  lo,  I  am  with  you  always  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  world. 
This  commission,  whether  it  was  given  at  that 
time  or  gathered  after  the  ascension,  as  some 
think,  from  the  tenor  of  his  teachings  and  summed 
up  in  this  form,  is  the  most  important  of  Chris- 
tian teaching  next  to  the  promise  of  salvation  by 
faith  in  Jesus. 

It  not  only  was  necessary  for  their  guidance, 
9 


10         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

since  he  left  the  whole  cause  for  which  he  came 
into  the  world  in  their  hands,  but  it  was  neces- 
sary for  their  encouragement  in  the  arduous 
undertaking.  If  they  had  not  done  what  this 
directed  them  to  do  the  message  and  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  would  have  evaporated  from  men's  minds 
in  a  generation  or  two  and  made  no  considerable 
mark  upon  the  world's  life. 

But  because  they  sought  to  obey  the  command, 
and  to  pass  it  on  to  others,  and  because  the 
churches  also  have  ever  since  taken  it  as  their  com- 
mission, the  Gospel  has  been  preached,  and  the 
truth  has  been  taught  to  a  great  portion  of  the 
world. 

And  since  the  pastors  are  the  natural  inheritors 
of  the  commission  it  is  in  an  especial  degree  in- 
cumbent on  them  to  give  attention  to  the  full 
import  of  the  commission. 

It  has  four  consecutive  steps. 

'' Go"  It  is  not  "  stay  and  give  the  gospel  to 
all  that  come,''  but  go  to  all.  "Disciple"  all 
nations.  That  included  what  Paul  said  he  was 
especially  told  to  do.  (Rom.  1:5,  10:14,  i5; 
Gal.  1:16.) 

It  was  what  the  twelve  did  not  attempt  to  do 
very  enthusiastically.  Peter  needed  to  be  taught 
it  again  when  he  was  sent  to  Cornelius.  (Acts 
10:  1-48.)  The  whole  church  in  Jerusalem  needed 
to  have  it  pressed  upon  them  after  Peter  had  been 
taught  it.     Nearly  all  Jerusalem  Christians  had 


THE  PASTOR  AN  EDUCATOR         11 

failed  to  see  the  full  import  of  it,  and  it  took  per- 
secution to  scatter  them  before  they  were  able  tcP 
see  it  as  a  duty  to  "  speak  the  word  to  the  Gen- 
tiles also"  (Acts  II :  19-21)  and  persuade  them 
to  enroll  in  the  school  of  Jesus  as  "  disciples  "  or 
students. 

""  Baptise."  That  is  lead  them  out  into  a  public 
confession  in  the  appointed  way. 

''  Teach  "  them.  After  they  are  enrolled  in  the 
school  of  Jesus  do  not  think  that  all  is  now  done; 
that  now  they  are  "  saved  ";  as  if  salvation  meant 
only  some  sort  of  insurance  against  future  punish- 
ment, but  give  them  the  enlightenment  and  disci- 
pline of  life  that  will  lead  them  to  do  what  Jesus 
had  taught  that  men  ought  to  do  to  '"  observe 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you.'^ 

This  ''teaching  them  to  observe"  is  to  crown 
your  endeavors.  It  is  to  be  the  goal  to  which  you 
are  to  try  and  bring  them  all.  It  is  the  dominat- 
ing purpose  that  should  regulate  and  infuse  itself 
into  all  your  other  work. 

We  do  not  have  the  record  of  the  actual  work 
of  those  twelve.  But  we  have  the  record  which 
makes  it  certain  that  they  learned  well  the  mean- 
ing of  the  commission,  for  they  and  the  first  gen- 
eration of  believers  preserved  in  the  gospels  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  Both  by  recorded  word  and 
by  the  example  of  the  Lord  himself  we  are  freed 
from  doubt  concerning  what  sort  of  lives  he  de- 
sires us  to  live. 


12         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

Consider  then  the  importance  that  is  attached 
to  teaching. 

In  the  Old  Testament  Moses  was  a  great 
teacher.  (Deut.  4:1.)  "And  now  O  Israel 
hearken  unto  the  statutes  and  unto  the  ordinances 
that  I  teach  you,  to  do  them;  that  ye  may  live, 
and  go  in  and  possess  the  land  which  Jehovah, 
the  God  of  your  fathers,  giveth  you."  This 
Moses  has  been  the  most  influential  of  all  the  men 
of  history  except  the  Man  of  Nazareth.  Mosaic 
ideas  of  justice  and  mercy,  of  truth  and  fidelity 
to  duty,  of  courage  and  patience  saturate  the  prac- 
tices of  all  the  Christian  and  Mohammedan  world. 

When  Samuel  came  to  the  leadership  of  Israel 
he  said  to  them :  "  Far  be  it  from  me  that  I  should 
sin  against  Jehovah  in  ceasing  to  pray  for  you, 
but  I  will  instruct  you  in  the  good  and  right  way.*' 

Elisha  appears  to  have  been  at  the  head  of  a 
school  for  the  prophets.  (II  Kings  2 :  3-7;  4:1; 
5:22;  9:1.) 

Job  said  of  God,  Who  is  a  teacher  like  unto 
him?     (36:22.)     See  also  35:  II. 

The  Psalms  abound  in  allusions  to  the  teaching 
of  truth. 

"  Jehovah  will  instruct  sinners  in  the  way." 
(25:8.)  "Come  ye  children  hearken  unto  me,  I 
will  teach  you  the   fear  of    the  Lord."      (Ps. 

34:11.) 

"  Restore  unto  me  the  joy  of  thy  salvation 
then  will  I  teach  transgressors  thy  ways  and  sin- 


THE  PASTOR  AN  EDUCATOR        13 

ners  shall  be  converted  unto  thee."    (Ps.  51 :  13.)' 
"  So  teach  us  to  number  our  days  that  we  may 
get  a  heart  of  wisdom."    (Ps.  90: 12.)     (See  also 
94:12.) 

A  study  of  the  Psalms  shows  that  all  the  fun- 
damental principles  of  education  were  employed 
by  those  who  arranged  the  liturgical  services  of 
the  temple.  There  is  a  rich  amount  of  song  in 
which  the  character  of  God  is  declared.  There 
are  songs  of  praise  from  the  men  of  great  faith. 
There  are  warnings  against  wickedness.  The 
grandest  metaphors  and  the  finest  of  similes  are 
used  to  express  good  men's  ideas  of  God.  Then 
there  are  the  historical  psalms  like  the  104-106, 
in  which  the  history  of  the  nation  as  God  had 
guided  it  was  taught  by  oft  repetition.  In  all 
this  the  purpose  was  not  simply  to  tell  the  story 
of  the  nation  but  to  show  that  God's  hand  was  in 
it  all.  Merle  d'Aubigne  wrote  in  the  preface  of 
his  history  of  the  Reformation,  **  The  history  of 
the  world  should  be  set  forth  as  the  annals  of  the 
Sovereign  king."  .  .  .  "  I  have  gone  down  the 
lists  whither  the  recitals  of  our  historians  have 
invited  me.  There  I  have  witnessed  the  actions 
of  men,  and  of  nations,  developing  themselves 
with  energy,  and  contending  in  violent  collision. 
I  have  heard  a  strange  din  of  arms,  but  I  have 
nowhere  seen  the  majestic  countenance  of  the  pre- 
siding Judge." 

That  could  not  be  said  of  the  Bible.    It  sketches 


14         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

the  path  along  which  the  nation  of  Israel  stum- 
bled; but  the  hand  of  God  is  in  every  leading 
event,  and  the  guidance  of  God  in  every  great 
man's  life.  The  historical  books  and  the  devo- 
tional books  alike  are  books  that  teach  the  things 
of  God  and  the  duties  of  man.  Even  the  out- 
bursts of  praise  from  joyous  souls,  and  the  mourn- 
ful cries  of  men  in  great  trial,  v^ere  sought  out 
and  inserted  in  the  book  to  teach  the  way  of  God 
with  men.  The  charge  of  d'Aubigne  against 
modern  historians  cannot  be  brought  against  the 
men  who  wrote  or  the  men  who  sorted  out  from 
the  writings  the  books  that  make  our  Bible.  In 
that  Book  the  "  majestic  countenance  of  the 
judge  "  always  shines  upon  the  path  of  the  peo- 
ple who  worship  him. 

In  the  New  Testament.  Here  the  record  shows 
that  Jesus'  great  work  was  teaching.  (Matt. 
7 :  29. )  We  read  that  he  "  taught  them  as  one 
having  authority."  (Mark  10:1.)  *' The  mul- 
titudes came  together  and  as  he  was  accustomed 
he  taught  them." 

(John  7:14)  "He  went  into  the  temple  and 
taught." 

(John  3:2)  When  Nicodemus  came  to  talk 
with  him  he  said,  **  We  know  that  thou  art  a 
teacher  come  from  God." 

And  these  verbal  designations  are  only  indica- 
tions of  what  is  in  the  heart  of  all  his  ministry. 
He  was  always  teaching  men  the  things  of  God. 


THE  PASTOR  AN  EDUCATOR         15 

All  Jerusalem  and  all  Galilee  thought  of  him  not 
as  some  great,  fiery  orator,  like  John  the  Bap- 
tist, nor  like  the  prophet  Elijah,  but  as  a  man 
who  was  stirring  ujp  the  country  by  his  teaching. 
He  set  men  to  thinking.  When  he  rebuked  he 
showed  them  why  they  deserved  his  rebukes. 
When  he  exhorted  he  gave  them  reasons  for  his 
exhortation.  When  he  would  inspire  them  to 
courage  and  endurance  he  gave  the  truth  which 
was  back  of  his  encouragement.  (John  18:37.) 
When  he  stood  before  Pilate  and  was  asked  if  he 
were  a  king  he  replied,  "  I  came  into  the  world 
to  bear  witness  to  the  truth." 

After  he  was  gone  his  disciples  became  teach- 
ers. The  complaint  made  about  them  was  (Acts 
3:42):  "These  men,  whom  you  had  in  prison, 
are  *  standing  and  teaching  the  people.' "... 
"  And  every  day  they  ceased  not  to  teach  and 
preach  Jesus  as  the  Christ."  When  the  church 
was  started  at  Antioch,  Barnabas  came  and 
hunted  up  Saul  who  was  then  getting  a  great 
name  as  a  teacher  and  "  for  a  whole  year  taught 
much  people."     (Acts  11 :  26.) 

Apollos  was  said  to  have  "  taught  accurately 
the  things  concerning  Jesus  "  but  he  was  not  fully 
informed.  Then  Aquila  and  Priscilla  took  him 
and  "  instructed  him  more  perfectly."  This  seems 
to  have  been  the  first  theological  school  after 
Jesus'  ascension  and  a  woman  was  one  of  the 
professors. 


16         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

The  nature  of  the  work.  Beyond  all  these  ex- 
emplifications of  the  teaching  habit  of  great  lead- 
ers, and  beyond  all  the  suggestions  that  may  come 
from  the  word  "teacher"  or  "teaching,"  there 
lies  in  the  very  nature  of  the  pastor's  work  the 
necessity  for  teaching.  The  pastor's  work  is  to 
lead  men  to  high  moral  and  spiritual  life.  But 
that  can  only  be  done  by  enabling  them  to  see  and 
feel  the  truth  that  moral  and  spiritual  life  rest 
upon.  Men  may  be  scared  into  an  outward  con- 
formity, but  they  are  not  transformed  by  it. 
Break  a  man's  sense  of  fear  and  he  will  go  back 
to  his  sins  "as  a  sow  to  her  wallowing  in  the 
mire."  (James.)  Men  may  be  coaxed  into  join- 
ing a  church  to  please  friends  or  to  gain  some 
social  end,  but  they  are  not  lifted  in  their  life. 
Men  may  be  hired  to  join  the  procession  of  the 
Christian  world  by  promises  of  heaven  or  some- 
thing that  they  value  more  than  heaven.  Such 
are  only  a  higher  kind  of  "  rice  Christians.'* 

All  these  fail  when  the  times  of  trial  come. 
But  the  man  who  has  been  made  to  see  the  truth 
that  underlies  all  the  Christian  life  is  as  sure  to 
go  the  way  of  truth  as  water  is  to  run  down  hill. 
Men  cannot  commit  themselves,  and  they  ought 
not  to  commit  themselves,  as  the  Christian  must 
commit  himself,  either  to  a  system  of  ethics  or  to 
a  theory  of  life  or  to  the  man  Jesus  as  Savior, 
unless  they  know  enough  about  them  to  justify 
their  faith,    li  they  know  but  little  they  can  trust 


THE  PASTOR  AN  EDUCATOR        17 

but  little.  If  they  begin  their  discipleship  upon 
an  erroneous  idea  of  what  it  means  they  will 
desert  the  cause  when  they  discover  their  error. 
They  must  be  taught  the  principles  correctly. 

It  is  the  men  who  are  convinced  that  stay  in  the 
line  of  duty.  When  men  have  begun  correctly 
they  must  still  be  taught  the  truths  adapted  to 
maturer  experience.  If  they  have  been  mistaught 
they  are  to  be  corrected.  As  Paul  wrote  to  Titus, 
they  must  be  "convinced  by  sound  doctrine." 
An  incorrect  doctrine  will  deflect  a  man's  con- 
duct as  surely  as  a  load  of  steel  will  deflect  the 
needle  of  the  ship's  compass.  One  cannot  hold  a 
philosophy  that  is  against  the  Christian  teaching 
without  his  life  being  gradually  deflected  from  the 
Christian  path.  A  Utilitarian  will  find  his  esti- 
mate of  conduct  out  of  harmony  with  the  estimate 
made  by  a  man  who  is  an  Idealist.  A  Calvinistic 
theology  will  impart  a  tone  to  a  man's  life  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  an  Armenian  theology 
will  give.  This  is  why  Paul  in  his  attempts  to 
correct  the  life  of  the  disciples  began  his  letters 
with  a  doctrinal  section  and  then  from  the  doc- 
trine he  proceeded  with  his  "  Theref  ores "  to 
specific  lines  of  duty. 

(Rom.  5:1)  Therefore  we  have  peace  with 
God. 

(Gal.  6:1)  Stand  fast  therefore  in  the  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  hath  set  us  free. 

(Eph.  4:1)   I  therefore  beseech  you  to  walk 


18         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

worthy  of  the  calling.  Note  the  first  words  o£ 
nearly  every  chapter  of  Hebrews  and  see  how  the 
logical  inference  from  the  preceding  truth  is 
made  toward  a  practical  duty.  Thus  it  appears 
that  the  teaching  function  of  the  pastor  is  not  an 
incident  but  an  essential  element  in  his  proper  ful- 
filment of  his  high  calling. 

The  pastor  is  a  man  who  has  been  up  into  the 
high  mountain  of  truth  and  seen  the  far-reaching 
landscape.  He  has  found  the  path  by  which  he 
can  climb  again.  Then  he  comes  down  and  leads 
his  people  up  to  where  he  has  been.  And  when 
they  have  seen  the  vision  from  that  viewpoint, 
they  will  never  be  the  same  people  again.  Some 
of  the  details  will  fade  from  the  mind  but  there 
will  be  a  residuum.  The  world  will  never  be  so 
small  again.  Life  will  never  appear  so  short  or 
so  unimportant.  The  emotion  may  die  out,  the 
ambition  of  the  hour  may  be  satisfied,  but  the  soul 
itself  will  remain  larger  and  purer  for  the  vision. 

Teaching  is  the  nearest  to  miracle-working  of 
anything  we  can  do.  To  give  a  man  a  clear  idea 
of  a  great  truth  is  to  put  something  into  his  mind 
that  will  remake  the  whole  man.  History  is  full 
of  instances  in  which  a  new  view  of  the  facts  of 
life  changed  men  so  much  that  the  words  of  the 
apostle  are  suitable,  "  They  are  begotten  again  by 
the  word  of  truth." 

Elijah's  work  was  spectacular.  His  deeds  seem 
like  ancient  marks  of  high  water  that  we  look  at 


THE  PASTOR  AN  EDUCATOR        19 

and  wonder  if  the  water  ever  was  so  high,  and  if  it 
ever  will  be  again.  The  Psalms  are  rippling 
streams  of  sparkling  water  inviting  us  to  drink. 
Ezra  no  doubt  did  some  good  exhortation,  but 
the  work  of  which  he  has  most  reason  to  rejoice 
now  is  that  he  organized  the  temple  services  on  a 
teaching  basis,  and  wrought  to  secure  a  bible  for 
the  instruction  of  Israel. 

The  liturgies  of  the  church  are  not  only  vehicles 
for  the  worshipping  soul  to  express  itself,  but 
they  are  schools  of  instruction.  Looking  at  the 
churches  that  we  call  strong  churches — not  large 
churches  always — and  we  see  that  they  have  been 
the  care  of  educational  pastors.  The  men  who 
are  honored  most  among  us  all  are  men  who  have 
the  teaching  gift.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
"  house  going  "  pastors  and  "  ingathering  "  pas- 
tors have  little  usefulness,  for  they  are  both  use- 
ful and  necessary;  but  I  mean  that  the  more 
permanent  results  are  from  the  labors  of  those 
who  have  the  teaching  gift  well  exercised  and 
developed. 

Evangelism  has  a  great  place  in  the  work  of 
the  kingdom.  Mr.  Moody,  Elder  Knapp,  "  Sam  " 
Small,  and  "  Sam "  Jones,  Dr.  Finney,  Gipsy 
Smith,  Mr.  Chapman,  are  names  that  will  be  re- 
membered. But  their  work  is  scattered  about 
and  they  cannot  stay  to  conserve  it.  But  F.  W. 
Robertson,  for  example,  had  a  work  that  remains. 
It  has  been  written  of  him  that  "  on  those  whose 


20  PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

tendencies  were  toward  skepticism  the  effect  of 
his  sermons  was  remarkable.  "  I  never  hear 
him,"  said  one,  "  without  some  doubt  being  re- 
moved, or  some  difficulty  being  solved.  Young 
men  who  had  boasted  publicly  of  doubts  which 
were  an  inward  terror  to  them  could  not  resist 
the  attractive  power  of  his  teaching,  and  fled  to 
him  to  disclose  the  history  of  their  hearts,  and 
find  sympathy  and  guidance."  *'  The  most  visible 
part  of  his  work  was  among  working  men.  He 
tound  fifteen  hundred  of  them  together  in  a  bond 
of  mutual  helpfulness."  ''  Dissenting  preachers 
spoke  of  his  sermons  with  praise.  Business  men 
wrote  to  say  that  they  felt  that  Christianity  was 
a  power  in  life.  Men  whose  intellect  had  been 
wearied  with  pulpit  sameness  read  them  with  in- 
terest. Fourteen  editions  of  his  sermons  have 
been  printed  and  are  yet  read  by  many  with 
profit." 

Mr.  Spurgeon  was  a  great  educator.  Not  only 
in  his  preaching  did  the  teaching  element  abound 
but  in  his  pastoral  work  and  plans  his  college  and 
his  preachers'  school  were  central.  His  work  all 
has  the  earmarks  of  true  pedagogy. 

Mr.  Beecher  taught,  but  in  his  own  peculiar 
way.  He  was  so  much  of  a  student  of  psychology 
that  he  was  an  interpreter  of  men  to  themselves. 
He  always  based  his  sermons  and  his  appeals  on 
some  common  and  familiar  experience,  and  then 
started  from  that  to  practical  inferences  from  the 


THE  PASTOR  AN  EDUCATOR         21 

experience.  His  congregations  were  religiously 
well  trained.  And  when  he  died,  although  they 
were  thus  made  orphans,  yet  without  a  quaver 
the  church  went  on  with  the  work  he  had  begun. 

On  the  contrary  Mr.  Talmadge  in  the  same  city, 
at  the  same  time,  gathered  great  congregations 
and  was  a  great  pulpiteer.  But  when  he  was 
gone  it  took  only  a  few  weeks  to  disband  the 
church.  They  had  been  accustomed  to  stare  at 
his  great  stereopticon  metaphors;  they  had  revelled 
in  his  poetic  fancies;  but  they  had  done  no  think- 
ing on  great  problems  and  had  no  power  to  solve 
them.* 

As  a  more  recent  instance  we  may  name  J. 
Campbell  Morgan.  Perhaps  no  man  of  equal 
ability  in  preaching  mingles  so  much  of  the  true 
teaching  quality  as  he.  Some  of  his  views  and  of 
his  interpretations  may  not  meet  with  your  ap- 
proval, but  his  ability  to  impress  them  on  his 
audiences  is  hardly  equalled  by  any  one. 

*  After  writing  the  above  the  following  editorial  ap- 
peared in  the  Watchman-Examiner: 

Dr.  Talmadge  was  a  pulpit  orator  of  the  flamboyant, 
sensational  type.  His  sermons  were  not  intended  primarily 
for  the  edification  or  the  comfort  of  a  local  congrega- 
tion and  were  quite  as  applicable  to  the  people  of  Kam- 
chatka as  to  the  people  of  Brooklyn.  He  had  no  personal 
touch  with  people  of  his  congregation  and  no  intimate 
knowledge  of  their  needs  or  their  aspirations.  When  the 
great  Tabernacle  went  up  in  flames  the  church  collapsed. 
In  the  great  heterogeneous  congregation  there  was  not 
enough  of  energy  and  spiritual  life  to  enable  it  to  get 
together  to  erect  a  new  house  of  worship;  so  the  church 
went  out  of  existence,  and  the  members  scattered  to  other 
congregations. 


22         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

"  The  foremost  thought  of  the  ministry  is  re- 
sponsibility for  the  oversight  of  souls,  although 
that  is  blent,  so  that  the  two  can  hardly  be  kept 
apart,  with  the  further  task  of  religious  instruc- 
tion. .  .  .  The  idea  of  stewardship  in  connection 
with  the  minister  has  special  reference  to  providing 
the  household  with  supplies  of  divine  truth." 
(Oswald  Dykes.) 

"  Commending  ourselves  in  the  sight  of  every 
man  by  the  manifestation  of  the  truth."     (Paul.) 

The  teaching  pastor,  therefore,  is  in  the  best  of 
company  and  has  the  surest,  brightest  prospects  of 
long  and  unfailing  usefulness. 

I  urge  you  to  cultivate  with  all  possible  en- 
thusiasm, care,  and  patience  the  teaching  quality 
of  your  preaching.  It  will  be  the  people  whom 
you  have  "  convinced  by  sound  doctrine "  who 
will  stand  by  when  the  strain  comes.  Those 
whom  you  only  please  without  edifying  will  hide 
when  the  storm  arises.  The  young  whom  you 
educate  will  recall  with  gratitude  your  ministry. 
They  will  tell  the  children,  "  He  is  the  man  that 
showed  me  the  truth.  All  that  came  afterwards 
only  watered  the  flowers  that  he  planted." 


II. 


The  Bishop  must  he  apt  to  teach.  Take  charge 
of  the  Hock  over  which  the  Holy  Spirit  hath 
made  you  overseer. — Paul. 

WHAT  IS  PEDAGOGY? 


IF  we  are  to  be  teachers  it  will  be  well  for  us  to 
think  over  the  content  of  that  word  "teach- 
ing." We  use  it  in  the  broad  sense  as  the  equiva- 
lent of  "  educating."  And  the  science  of  educat- 
ing is  called  the  science  of  pedagogy.  Primarily 
the  word  meant  to  lead  the  young.  In  the  old 
Roman  world  the  well-to-do  sent  a  servant  along 
with  their  young  children  to  the  school  as  a 
guard  and  guide.  He  was  called  a  pedagogue.  In 
the  King  James  version  of  the  Bible  (Gal.  3 :  24) 
we  read  that  "  the  law  was  a  schoolmaster  " — 
(in  the  Greek  it  is  pedagogue) — "to  lead  us  to 
Christ."  But  now  we  call  pedagogy  the  science 
of  teaching  in  any  and  in  all  grades.  There  is 
a  branch  of  it  in  the  primary  and  another  in  the 
intermediate  departments.  I  am  applying  the 
word  to  some  part  of  the  preacher's  activities. 

General  pedagogy  is  the  science  of  leading  out. 
Powers  of  body  or  mind  that  are  latent  are  to  be 
led  out  into  full  activity.  For  example,  a  man 
has  by  nature  the  gift  of  speech.     But  if  it  be 

33 


24         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

not  led  out — e-ducated — it  will  be  a  small  affair. 
It  was  said  of  Bismarck  that  he  could  be  silent  in 
seven  languages.  Unless  the  gift  of  possible 
speech  with  which  we  are  endowed  be  cultivated 
we  shall  practically  be  silent  in  every  language. 
Many  a  man  comes  into  our  classes  who  has  ideas 
and  thinking  powers  of  unusual  value,  but  whose 
power  of  speech  is  so  poorly  developed  that  his 
ideas  are  shut  up  in  his  mind.  He  cannot  give 
them  any  adequate  expression.  They  are  of  not 
much  more  use  in  the  world  than  the  possible 
statue  of  a  great  man  that  is  contained  in  a  block 
of  fine  marble  but  not  yet  cut  out. 

All  men  have  some  imagination.  But  unless  it 
be  developed  a  great  part  of  the  world's  wisdom 
and  beauty  will  be — so  far  as  such  undeveloped 
minds  are  concerned — as  if  they  did  not  exist. 
Men  have  reasoning  powers,  but  how  feeble  they 
are  until  they  have  been  brought  into  fullness  by 
use.  When  they  have  been  brought  out  into  ma- 
turity man  is  put  upon  the  throne  that  makes  him 
preeminent  in  creation.  The  animate  and  inani- 
mate worlds  submit  to  his  dominance.  So  with 
the  moral  powers.  Reverence  for  God,  respect  for 
one's  self,  love  of  truth  for  truth's  sake,  kindness 
to  our  fellow  men  are  embryonically  present  in 
all,  but  they  must  be  e-ducated  imtil  we  are  in 
character  Christ-like. 

Take  the  case  of  men,  we  will  say,  who  have 
come  into  the  church  from  some  great  evangelistic 


WHAT  IS  PEDAGOGY?  25 

meeting.  They  are  real  converts  to  Christ,  but 
how  embryonic  they  are!  Their  idea  of  God  is 
that  he  is  a  great  king.  The  words  of  the  Psalm 
are  suitable  for  them :  "  Jehovah  is  a  God  of 
gods."  '*  Greatly  to  be  feared  is  Jehovah  in  the 
assembhes  of  the  saints."  When  they  pray  their 
prayers  are  a  cross  between  children  asking  of 
their  fathers  and  men  begging  favor  of  a  tyrant. 
They  are  like  Solomon  at  the  dedication  of  the 
temple.  He  prayed  repeatedly  that  Jehovah  would 
hear  the  prayers  of  his  people  and  when  they 
turned  from  evil  ways  forgive  them.  One  would 
think  that  Jehovah's  readiness  to  forgive  was  a 
doubtful  matter,  and  therefore  Solomon  needed  to 
remind  him  of  his  duty  in  the  case.  But  after 
a  time  these  same  men  will  have  so  far  developed 
their  sense  of  Jehovah's  goodness  that  they  al- 
most cease  to  ask  but  only  praise.  As  Dr.  W.  N. 
Clarke  expressed  it  "  such  men  do  not  think  the 
Church  is  a  widow  but  a  bride,  her  Lord  always 
at  hand." 

Here  is  a  man  with  a  large  amount  of  good 
in  him  but  only  a  little  of  the  leaven  of  truth. 
After  a  time  the  leaven,  under  the  influence  of 
good  teaching,  works  its  wonderful  changes  so 
that  he  lives  for  great  purposes  and  in  great 
joyfulness. 

This  boy,  just  opening  his  eyes  to  the  world, 
with  every  sensibility  alert,  making  his  life  choices 
of  companions  and  occupations  and  principles—' 


26         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

the  teacher  is  to  so  direct  him  in  these  formative 
years  that  his  future  course  will  be  one  of  wis- 
dom and  loyalty  to  Christ. 

To  educate,  then,  is  much  more  than  telling 
people  something  they  did  not  know  before  you 
told  them.  That  is  only  a  small  part  of  educat- 
ing them.  It  must  seek  to  give  them  power  to 
find  out  things  for  themselves.  To  explain  the 
Bible  is  good,  but  to  give  them  power  to  explain 
it  themselves  is  better. 

It  is  more  than  to  train  men  to  certain  lines 
of  action.  Dogs  can  be  trained  to  do  some  things. 
I  have  seen  statements  that  even  fleas  can  be 
trained  to  do  things.  And  one  man  has  trained 
flies  to  perform  tricks.  Even  pigs  have  been 
taught  to  pick  out  letters.  And  it  is  possible  to 
train  people  to  do  what  are  called  religious  acts 
with  about  as  much  real  intelligence  about  them 
as  these  other  trained  animals  have  in  their  doings. 
There  are  no  thought  processes  set  into  motion. 
It  is  habit  or  memory  or  association  only.  These 
are  all  parts  of  education  but  they  are  only  pre- 
liminary activities  looking  toward  maturer  de- 
velopments. 

Some  pastors  do  a  great  amount  of  this  train- 
ing work.  I  knew  of  one  who  succeeded  in  get- 
ting more  than  fifty  of  his  members  to  stand  up 
and  repeat  the  first  eight  chapters  of  Romans. 
That  was  a  great  success.  But  they  may  have 
gained  only  a  very  little  idea  of  Paul's  teaching 


WHAT  IS  PEDAGOGY?  27 

after  all.  I  knew  a  girl  in  the  Sunday  School  who 
repeated  several  chapters  from  the  book  of  John. 
But  she  was  too  young  to  have  the  faintest  idea 
of  what  it  was  all  about.  That  was  good  memory 
drill  but  it  was  not  moral  or  religious  education. 
One  good  man  used  to  say  he  did  not  think  he 
knew  a  passage  of  scripture  until  he  had  prac- 
ticed it. 

In  the  pastor's  task  therefore  there  is  more 
than  getting  people  to  know  the  story  of  the 
Bible  and  the  Creed  and  the  Catechism.  More 
than  to  secure  an  habitual  attendance  on  the 
services  of  the  church.  He  must  bring  out  into 
full  strength  the  latent  spiritual  forces  and  get 
them  into  action. 

In  religious  matters  it  is  more  than  mastering 
some  of  the  problems  of  theology,  important  as 
those  are.  It  is  a  sad  fact  that  many  who  are 
experts  in  theology  are  perverts  in  practical  life. 
We  might  at  some  time  send  a  man  from  our 
school  with  a  degree,  of  whom  his  fellow  stu- 
dents think  that  another,  whose  scholarship 
scarcely  warrants  a  diploma,  is  better  educated 
in  religion  than  he. 

It  is  bringing  social  virtues  to  maturity.  I  do 
not  mean  the  power  of  conversation,  but  I  mean 
the  ability  and  disposition  to  live  in  company  with 
one's  fellow  men  and  do  his  part,  carry  his  share 
of  the  burden,  trust  his  fellows  and  be  trusted 
by  them.     To  put  it  concretely  it  means  to  be 


28         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

a  neighborly,  law-obeying  citizen  who  votes  and 
votes  on  the  right  side  of  great  moral  questions; 
who  pays  his  debts  as  promptly  as  he  is  able; 
who  pays  his  taxes  without  grumbling;  who  helps 
others  to  do  their  duty.  It  means  readiness  to 
do  his  part  and  pay  his  proportion  in  the  church, 
and  not  to  be  a  crank. 

It  is  making  the  spiritual  part  of  men  to  be- 
come dominant.  They  are  to  be  led  into  such 
an  estimate  of  values  that  things  of  affection  and 
character  are  considered  to  be  worth  more  than 
things  that  can  be  eaten,  or  things  that  can  be 
counted  and  weighed.  They  are  to  be  led  to  see 
that  things  that  have  their  beginning  and  end  in 
this  world  are  of  less  importance  than  things  of 
eternity.  And  this  means  that  what  is  called 
spiritual  life  be  not  misunderstood.  In  my  school 
days  I  used,  as  students  do  now,  go  out  here  and 
there  to  supply  vacant  pulpits.  I  thus  had  oppor- 
tunity to  hear  many  estimates  of  other  preachers. 
I  found  that  in  very  many  cases  if  a  man  preached 
the  severer  side  of  the  truth  he  was  called  an 
"  old-fashioned  preacher."  If  he  reasoned  of  right- 
eousness in  a  modern  way  he  was  called  a  "  doc- 
trinal preacher  " — "  smart  but  not  very  pious." 
If  he  was  a  teaching  preacher  they  said,  *'  That 
man  fed  me.  I  can  go  like  Elijah  on  the  strength 
of  that  meat  forty  days."  But  if  he  stirred  the 
emotions  and  made  the  congregation  weep,  they 
said  he  was  a  "  spiritual  preacher."     Each  of 


WHAT  IS  PEDAGOGY?  29 

these  characterizations  contain  a  truth,  but  the 
really  spiritual  life  is  one  that  recognizes  that  God 
is  a  great  person  analogous  to  ourselves.  And 
that  we  have  a  kind  of  intercourse  with  him. 

Spiritual  life  is  that  set  of  feelings  and  activi- 
ties that  are  produced  in  us  by  the  thought  that 
we  are  in  the  presence  and  under  the  care  of  that 
Great  Person  who  is  over  all  and  is  the  Father  of 
all.  To  think  of  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  such 
a  Person  is  to  fill  us  with  the  noblest  ambitions 
and  inspire  us  with  the  greatest  zeal  for  doing 
the  things  that  are  pleasing  to  him.  All  other 
activities  are  contributory  to  doing,  feeling,  and 
thinking  his  wishes  for  us. 

It  is  a  whole  and  not  a  fractional  undertaking. 
The  Evangelist  is  to  do  one  kind  of  work.  The 
Visitor  another.  But  the  Educator  is  charged 
with  all  these.  He  is  the  Captain-of-spiritual- 
industry.  He  is  Commander-in-chief  of  the  latent 
forces.  He  calls  out  all  the  reserves  of  the  soul 
and  directs  them  toward  the  welfare  of  the  whole 
man.     He  is  the  Superintendent  of  a  school. 

My  purpose  is  to  apply  these  principles  to  all 
the  work  over  which  the  pastor  has  oversight. 

It  will  be  considered  first  as  pulpit  pedagogy 
and  then  as  administrative  pedagogy. 

Pulpit  pedagogy.  The  principles  are  the  same 
in  pulpit  pedagogy  as  those  underlying  all  school 
work;  but  the  circumstances  make  the  application 
of  them  more  complex.    In  school  the  teacher  can 


30         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

ask  questions,  and  can  encourage  questions;  and 
thus  be  able  to  know  the  needs  of  the  student. 
But  in  the  pulpit  work,  there  is  no  opportunity 
for  questions  and  answers.  The  sermon  must  in 
some  way  meet  the  needs,  and  answer  the  ques- 
tions that  are  not  asked.  It  must  be  in  many 
cases  a  one-sided  dialogue  answering  in  the  ser- 
mon the  questions  that  are  only  in  the  hearer's 
mind.  It  must  also  touch  the  springs  of  action 
so  that  the  hearer  will  put  into  life  what  the 
preacher  has  put  into  the  sermon.  The  study 
and  the  use  of  methods  by  which  to  accomplish 
these  things  is  what  may  be  called  Pulpit  peda- 
gogy. 

To  be  able  to  profit  by  such  a  study  one  needs 
to  have  some  familiarity  with  the  primary  prin- 
ciples of  psychology,  and  to  be  fairly  well  in- 
formed in  school  pedagogy  for  the  principles  are 
the  same  to  considerable  extent. 

Great  help  can  be  gained  by  frequent  visits  to 
the  public  schools,  or  by  acquaintance  and  con- 
versation with  public  school  teachers. 

Valuable  suggestions  can  also  be  gained  by  the 
study  of  the  methods  of  those  denominations  that 
emphasize  the  teaching  of  the  church  more  than 
the  evangelistic  duty.  In  that  line  their  experi- 
ence is  a  subject  of  profitable  consideration.  We 
may  adopt  without  compunction  the  saying  of 
Cromwell  to  his  soldiers — (but  we  think  in  a 
much  better  cause  and  better  spirit)  :  "  The  earth 


WHAT  IS  PEDAGOGY?  31 

is  the  Lord's  and  the  fullness  thereof.  We  are 
the  Lord's  people.    Therefore  help  yourselves." 

Administrative  pedagogy.  In  the  application 
of  pedagogy  to  the  larger  part  of  the  pastoral 
field  the  need  for  invention,  and  for  the  more 
subtle  influence  of  pedagogy,  is  greatly  felt.  All 
the  various  departments  of  the  pastor's  activity 
require  the  guidance  of  this  teaching  purpose.  In 
the  Sunday  School  he  will  seek  to  foster  the  best 
grade  of  teaching.  All  his  wit  and  wisdom  will 
be  needed.  All  his  resources  will  be  called  upon 
there.  Good  teaching  has  to  compete  in  the 
Sunday  School  with  a  whole  battalion  of  brave 
competitors.  They  include  the  social  demands  of 
the  day,  class  distinctions,  the  ties  of  good  fel- 
lowship that  bind  the  classes  together,  the  craze 
for  entertainment,  the  Boy  Scout  and  the  Camp- 
fire  Girls'  themes,  not  to  mention  the  mission  les- 
sons, the  lawn  festivals,  and,  lately,  the  Red 
Cross  gatherings;  all  of  which  seek  discussion  in 
the  classes. 

Each  one  of  these  is  useful  but  the  ability  to 
conserve  their  good  and  to  so  direct  them  that 
they  will  work  together  toward  true  education 
along  true  pedagogical  lines  is  a  gift  greatly  to 
be  desired  and  almost  imperatively  demanded. 

In  pastoral  visitation  the  necessity  to  be  so 
entertaining  as  to  be  welcome,  and  yet  make  visits 
to  the  family  both  welcome  and  useful,  taxes  the 
best  powers  of  the  pastor. 


32         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

In  the  liturgical  part  of  the  services  he  has  to 
struggle  with  titanic  forces  in  the  people  who  do 
not  know  what  they  come  to  church  for,  and  with 
those  who  come  for  pious  entertainment  on  a 
semi-pious  holiday,  and  with  the  choir  who  want 
to  make  a  good  showing  of  their  musical  abilities, 
and  with  his  own  subtle  ambition  to  commend 
himself  as  an  "  elegant  sermonizer  " — a  maker  of 
sermons  having  "  artistic  perfectness." 

In  the  liturgical  churches  such  as  the  Roman 
Catholic,  Episcopalian,  or  Lutheran,  the  pastors 
are  relieved  in  large  measure  of  the  responsibility 
of  arranging  the  liturgy.  It  has  all  been  arranged 
for  them  by  councils  of  men  who  gave  the  best 
wisdom  to  its  arrangement.  But  in  the  Baptist, 
Congregational,  and  in  lesser  degree  the  Presby- 
terian and  Methodist  churches  the  weight  of  re- 
sponsibility is  thrown  upon  the  pastor.  And  he, 
in  a  great  majority  of  cases,  never  has  had  any 
teaching  or  any  study  of  the  pedagogical  intent 
or  value  of  the  liturgical  part  of  the  services. 

As  Dr.  Oswald  Dykes  has  said:  ''But  where 
everything  is  left,  as  in  Congregational  and  mod- 
ern Presbyterian  worship,  to  the  minister  as  sole 
leader,  his  training  for  this  high  function  has  been 
notoriously  and  unaccountably  neglected." 

But  in  all  these  departments  of  his  work  there 
is  both  an  opportunity  and  consequently  an  obli- 
gation to  regulate  all  that  is  done  by  the  best  peda- 
gogical principles  and  highest  educational  aims. 


III. 


Paul  standing  on  the  stairs  beckoned  with  his 
hand  unto  the  people:  and  when  there  was  a 
great  silence  he  spake  unto  them  in  the  He- 
brew language  saying,  Brethren  and  fathers 
hear  ye  the  defence  which  I  now  make  unto 
you.  And  when  they  heard  that  he  spake  unto 
them  in  the  Hebrew  language  they  were  the 
more  quiet. — Acts  21 :40. 

ATTENTION 


TN  selecting  from  the  principles  of  pedagogy 
•■■  those  that  are  usable  in  the  pulpit  we  come 
first  to  the  matter  of  attention  on  the  part  of  the 
congregation.  No  considerable  influence  can  be 
exerted  by  a  sermon  that  does  not  have  the  atten- 
tion of  the  hearers.  Here,  as  in  teaching,  that  is 
first  in  time  as  well  as  in  importance. 

The  preacher  has  difficulties  in  this  connection 
that  the  teacher  does  not  have.  The  parents  send 
the  children  to  school  and  to  Sunday  School, 
but  they  do  not  require  them  to  attend  church. 
The  rewards  for  attendance  and  the  cards  for 
good  lessons  are  not  available  for  the  preacher. 
He  must  both  create,  to  some  extent,  the  appetite 
and  then  furnish  the  food.  In  the  class  there  is 
the  opportunity  to  address  a  question  to  an  inat- 
tentive scholar,  and  perhaps  the  teacher  may  even 
rebuke  inattention.    There  is  also  the  restraining 


34j         pedagogy  for  MINISTERS 

and  compelling  influence  of  the  teacher's  nearness 
to  each  scholar  in  the  class.  These  the  preacher 
lacks. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  avenues  of  ap- 
proach open  for  the  preacher  that  are  closed  to 
the  teacher.  The  general  atmosphere  in  the 
preacher's  audience  is  one  of  quiet  and  attention, 
outward  at  least.  And  that  is  favorable.  Then 
attention  is  based  upon  interests  of  many  kinds. 
There  are  many  avenues  to  interest  open  to  the 
preacher  that  are  not  open  to  the  teacher.  And 
some  of  them  will  reach  some  of  the  hearers. 

An  incident  in  business,  political,  or  social  life 
is  always  an  opening  to  interest.  Just  as  most 
people  want  to  have  some  human  figure  in  the 
painting  of  a  landscape,  and  feel  that  the  picture 
is  lonesome  without  it,  so  a  sermon  or  a  discus- 
sion of  abstract  truth  is  far  less  likely  to  interest 
than  something  that  connects  with  people.  If  a 
preacher  says,  "  There  was  a  man,"  or,  "  We 
read  yesterday  such  an  such  an  incident,"  or,  *'  If 
a  man  does  so  and  so,"  at  once  he  has  the  atten- 
tion of  every  one.  He  may  lose  it  if  his  story  is 
not  good,  but  he  has  interest  at  the  start.  Dr. 
John  A.  Broadus,  the  "  prince  of  preachers,"  in 
the  South  once  had  a  congregation  of  men  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  staying  outside  until  after  he 
had  begun  his  sermon,  and  then  come  clumping 
along  in  over  the  uncarpeted  floor  with  squeaky 
boots.     He  could  not  rebuke  them  nor  ask  them 


ATTENTION  35 

to  do  otherwise  for  they  were  of  the  extra  inde- 
pendent breed  of  Baptist.  But  he  took  up  the 
practice  of  beginning  each  sermon  with  a  story 
of  some  sort.  And  in  a  Httle  while  they  had  the 
habit  of  coming  in  before  the  sermon  began. 

Attention  may  be  gained  by  beauty  of  expres- 
sion. A  good  woman  once  said  to  me :  "  Make 
your  sermons  beautiful.  The  truth  is  worthy  of 
it."  The  cultivation  of  good  rhetorical  speech  is 
a  source  of  power.  A  young  rhetorician  in  Milan, 
Italy,  used  to  go  to  church  to  hear  the  preacher 
Ambrose.  He  did  not  care  for  the  doctrine,  but 
he  was  so  delighted  with  the  beautiful  language  of 
the  preacher  that  he  went  with  regularity.  But 
in  so  doing  he  came  to  accept  the  Gospel,  and  be- 
came the  great  theologian  Augustine. 

A  fine  voice  has  great  power  to  interest 
people.  This  is  a  resource  that  has  not  been 
given  the  attention  it  ought  to  have.  A  full 
sweet,  clear  voice  that  responds  to  every  wave  of 
emotion  in  the  thought  holds  men,  and  they  get 
the  message  thus  spoken.  It  was  the  habit  of 
Gerritt  Smith  to  speak  forty  minutes  every  day, 
when  he  did  not  have  an  address  to  make,  in  order 
not  to  lose  control  of  his  voice.  Men  who  at 
first  were  not  disposed  to  agree  with  what  he  said 
would  go  long  distances  to  hear  him. 

The  appeal  to  curiosity  is  of  great  value.  It 
has  great  value  in  other  matters  of  which  more 
will  be  said  in  a  later  chapter.    But  in  this  mat- 


36         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

ter  it  has  great  utility.  This  may  be  invoked  by 
the  use  of  the  question  form.  In  the  sermon  one 
can  describe  a  situation  and  then  ask,  What  is  the 
outcome  of  this.  Taking  things  as  we  know  them  to 
be  what  is  the  right  way  to  act  under  such  circum- 
stances? Or  one  may  state  a  problem  and  ask, 
What  is  the  word  of  Paul  or  of  Jesus  on  this? 
Sometimes  a  pause  before  a  statement  will  at- 
tract attention  as  they  wait  for  the  word.  To 
delay  the  final  statement  by  any  process  awakens 
curiosity  and  thus  holds  attention. 

Some  men  gain  attention  by  using  unique  and 
grotesque  metaphors,  and  somewhat  startling 
phrases.  "  Billy  "  Sunday  has  that  power  to  the 
utmost  limit.  If  he  did  not  have  he  could  not 
hold  his  audiences.  A  large  part  of  them  go  to 
hear  his  vivid,  and  often  ludicrous  characteriza- 
tions of  men  and  things.  It  is  a  great  power. 
One  need  not  attempt  imitation  of  his  phrases,  but 
it  is  worth  while  to  cultivate  striking  ways  of 
saying  things;  and  to  state  all  religious  truths 
in  phrases  that  are  transparent  to  the  hearers. 
To  preach  in  the  vernacular  may  crucify  a  man's 
literary  pride,  but  sermons  of  that  sort  will  not 
crucify  so  much  the  time  and  feelings  of  the 
hearers  as  those  sermons  do  that  are  so  elegant  as 
to  lose  their  pungency.  Mr.  Spurgeon  used  to 
say,  "  Polish  your  sword  but  do  not  round  the 
edge  in  doing  so." 

Illustrations  are  a  great  source  of  interest.    If 


ATTENTION  37 

they  are  really  illustrations  and  not  mere  stories, 
they  do  a  double  duty.  They  fix  attention  and 
they  convey  truth  to  the  heart. 

A  great  inclusive  requirement  is  that  the 
preacher  have  a  message  which  he  wants  to  give 
the  congregation  for  their  benefit,  and  is  dead  in 
earnest  about  it.  Earnestness  is  a  contagious 
thing.  We  often  hear  men  approve  a  preacher 
because  ''  he  is  so  earnest."  "  He  seems  to  be 
so  sincere,"  they  say. 

Margaret  Slattery  says,  "Given  well-prepared 
material,  in  which  one  is  interested  heart  and 
soul,  and  the  problem  of  gaining  attention  is  half 
solved." 

The  man  behind  the  sermon  speaks  through  the 
sermon.  "  The  real  power  of  your  oratory," 
said  Bishop  Brooks,  "  must  be  your  own  intelli- 
gent delight  in  what  you  are  doing."  "  To  be 
dead  in  earnest  is  to  be  eloquent."  "  The  preach- 
er's personal  interest  is  the  buoyant  air  that  fills 
the  mass  and  lifts  it." 

These  things  of  which  I  have  been  speaking  are 
important  details  of  the  work  but  not  its  central, 
vital  part.  As  the  painter  must  have  the  technique 
of  his  art  or  he  cannot  give  expression  to  his 
ideals,  so  the  preacher  may  not  be  ignorant  nor 
careless  in  matters  of  technique,  although  it  re- 
mains true  that  "a  living  dog  is  better  than  a 
dead  lion."  A  sermon  full  of  life  and  blunders 
is  better  than  one  empty  of  both. 


38         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

Art  is  for  the  sake  of  the  sermon,  not  the  ser- 
mon for  the  sake  of  the  art. 

But  there  are  some  elements  for  the  lack  of 
which  none  of  these  things  I  have  mentioned  can 
make  amends. 

In  the  heart  of  all  these  things  there  must  be 
some  truth  worth  knowing.  Henry  Ward  Beecher's 
father  was  once  asked  how  he  got  the  attention 
of  his  audience.  He  replied,  "  Give  them  some- 
thing to  attend  to."  That  is  a  vital  element.  Ser- 
mons must  have  some  real  worthy  content.  It 
need  not  be  information  or  reasoning.  It  may  be 
exhortation  or  evangelism.  But  it  must  have 
some  worthy  thing  in  mind  or  no  sort  of  approach 
to  men's  minds  will  hold  attention  long. 

The  hearer  has  a  right  to  expect  some  return  for 
his  time  and  attention.  If  his  return  is  not  satis- 
factory he  will  mentally  be  away  on  other  errands 
of  thought.  A  school  superintendent  once  said 
to  a  preacher,  "  You  disturb  my  thoughts.  I  am 
accustomed  to  have  my  own  thoughts  when  the 
sermon  is  going  on."  Thoughts  ought  to  be 
"disturbed."  There  is  no  good  reason  for  men 
to  sit  through  a  sermon  just  as  a  matter  of  respect 
for  the  preacher. 

One  must  have  a  purpose  and  be  moving  toward 
its  accomplishment. 

It  is  easier  to  get  attention  than  to  hold  it.  The 
minds  of  a  congregation  of  common  people  are 
not  used  to  continued  attention.    The  speaker  can 


ATTENTION  39 

hold  them  for  a  few  minutes  around  one  idea, 
then  he  will  find  them  becoming  less  attentive.  If 
he  can  now  pass  to  some  other  phase  of  the  sub- 
ject he  gets  a  new  point  of  interest  and  they  will 
concentrate  upon  that  for  a  time.  So  by  chang- 
ing the  viewpoint  he  can  hold  their  minds  during 
the  whole  discourse.  But  these  separate  points 
must  have  a  connection  with  each  other  such  that 
they  are  parts  of  a  whole.  When  one  is  dropped 
the  mind  should  be  left  at  the  very  door  of  the 
next  one.  But  there  must  be  something  more  than 
a  series  of  points  all  on  a  level,  and  unconnected. 
These  points  must  have  a  forward  and  an  upward 
movement. 

A  New  England  deacon  said  about  his  pastor, 
"  His  sermons  are  like  the  clouds  in  June.  They 
are  always  moving  on."  If  a  sermon  only  chases 
itself  around  like  a  dog  chasing  its  tail  one  may 
smile  at  it  for  a  little  but  interest  soon  evaporates. 
Try  and  accomplish  something  in  a  sermon  and 
make  everything  bend  toward  that  aim,  and  it  will 
be  recognized  and  listened  to. 

And  what  is  true  of  the  progressive  arrange- 
ment is  true  also  of  the  persuasive  element.  To 
give  the  best  persuasives  and  the  most  emotional 
at  the  first  makes  the  sermon  an  anticlimax.  All 
the  latter  part  will  be  a  disappointment.  Both  the 
persuasive  and  the  pedagogical  parts  should  move 
upward  as  well  as  onward.  There  should  be  a 
sort  of  transfiguration  effect  such  that  men  will 


40  PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

feel  when  they  go  from  church  that  they  have 
come  down  from  a  mountain.  Though  the  im- 
mediate sense  of  glory  will  lessen,  the  effect  will 
not  evaporate. 

^A  ''skeleton''  is  important;  that  is,  an  or- 
derly and  logical  arrangement  of  the  several 
parts.  I  am  not  intending  to  belittle  the  preach- 
ers who  have  little  if  any  analytical  ability.  Some 
of  them  have  a  good  spirit  and  say  many  good 
things.  They  get  large  congregations.  They  are 
magnetic  speakers  who  call  men  together,  and  it 
does  men  good  to  get  together  even  if  they  only 
get  a  pious  entertainment.  They  do  get  much 
more.  But  as  educators  these  men  must  take  a 
second  place  in  comparison  with  those  men  who 
have  the  logical  and  analytical  faculty  better 
developed. 

Without  knowing  it,  all  men  have  a  logical 
sense.  All  men  think  logically  if  they  think  at 
all.  Indeed  Logic  is  not  a  set  of  rules  imposed 
on  men  for  their  thinking.  Logic  is  only  an 
orderly  exposition  of  the  way  that  men  do  think. 
If  a  man's  sermon  follows  the  truly  natural  order 
most  of  his  hearers  will  follow  and  find  help  with- 
out discovering  that  there  was  any  logic  about  it. 
But  there  are  some  who  are  logical  consciously. 
They  test  a  man's  sermons  by  rules.  They  detect 
any  failure  to  make  his  conclusions  clear  or  cer- 
tain. For  such  the  preacher  must  try  to  fit  his 
discourse.    If  he  has  a  *'  skeleton  "  and  follows  it 


ATTENTION  41 

he  will  hold  their  attention  and  gain  their  respect 
for  his  teaching. 

To  make  this  "  skeleton "  requires  care  and 
study.  Phillips  Brooks  used  to  sketch  in  brief  the 
suggestions  for  the  various  points  of  his  sermon. 
He  assigned  about  so  many  pages  for  one  point 
and  so  many  for  another.  Then  he  arranged  them 
in  logical  order.  After  that  he  wrote  out  in  full, 
being  careful  not  to  have  more  than  thirty  pages 
of  manuscript.  The  "  Life  and  Letters,"  prepared 
by  Professor  Allen,  gives  many  quotations  from 
the  notes  of  Mr.  Brooks  that  shov/  how  sys- 
tematic he  was  in  his  sermon  preparation. 

This  "  skeleton  "  should  be  written  out  in  such 
a  way  that  if  a  man  should  find  it  and  nothing 
more  he  would  have  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  line 
of  thought  the  sermon  followed  and  the  content 
of  it.  "  The  sermon  is  a  proposition  developed, 
and  a  proposition  is  a  sermon  condensed." 

For  example,  a  sermon  on  Psalm  90:  i,  "  Lord, 
thou  hast  been  our  dwelling  place  in  all  genera- 
tions," had  this  "  skeleton."  To  have  God  for  a 
dwelling  place  saves  us,  at  first,  from  the  sense 
of  utter  chaos  in  human  history.  Secondly,  it 
saves  us  from  the  sense  of  unendurable  chaos  in 
the  individual  life.  Thirdly,  it  saves  our  ethical 
life  from  weakness  and  degeneration.  It  gives 
moral  backbone. 

This  outline  crystallizes  the  whole  sermon.  It 
would  guide  a  man's  thoughts  in  meditating  on  the 


42         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

text,  and  it  moves  toward  the  higher  interests  of 
rehgious  life. 

Men  differ  about  the  prominence  they  will  give 
to  this  "  skeleton."  Mr.  Spurgeon  used  fre- 
quently to  give  it  at  the  first  of  the  sermon.  For 
example,  he,  in  preaching  on  Hebrews  12 :  24, 
said,  "  We  have  two  things  in  the  text.  First, 
we  have  a  comparison  between  the  blood  of 
sprinkling  and  the  blood  of  Jesus;  and,  secondly, 
we  have  a  certain  condition  mentioned."  This 
concentrated  attention  on  what  he  was  saying  in 
the  first  part,  and  created  what  the  pedagogical 
writers  call  *'  expectant  attention  "  for  the  second 
part. 

At  another  time,  speaking  about  the  blood  of 
Jesus,  he  pictures  a  sinner  seeing  it  and  he  says, 
"  The  blood  spoke  to  him  of  *  Love.'  And  the 
second  thing  it  said  was  *  Mercy.'  The  third  thing 
was  *  Pardon.'  The  next  thing  was  *  Acceptance.' 
The  next  was  '  Adoption.'     The  next  thing  was 

*  Security '  and  the  last  thing  it  whispered  was 

*  Heaven.' "  That  order  was  itself  attention- 
commanding,  and  led  thought  over  the  whole 
journey  of  a  pilgrim — from  the  city  of  Destruc- 
tion to  Emmanuel's  Palace.  How  incongruous 
and  powerless  it  would  be  if  the  order  of  the 
parts  were  reversed  so  that  the  sermon  begun  with 
"  heaven  " ! 

South,  the  great  English  preacher,  quite  gen- 
erally stated  his  line  of  thought  at  the  first  as  a 


ATTENTION  43 

lawyer  states  his  proposed  line  of  argument.  Os- 
wald Dykes  rather  approves  this. 

Mr.  Beecher  did  not  do  this.  He  said  that  it 
was  not  a  good  thing  to  throw  away  the  power 
of  curiosity.  It  was  better  to  have  both  the 
anticipation  of  good  things  to  come  combined 
with  the  surprise  when  they  did  come. 

But  he  always  knew  what  his  line  of  thought 
was  and  how  he  was  to  follow  it.  He  knew  what 
he  was  trying  to  do,  and  knew  he  meant  to  do  it. 

A  series  of  sermons  on  connected  topics  is 
useful.  A  common  purpose  running  through  the 
series  brings  men  to  church  with  an  interest  pre- 
liminary to  the  sermon.  Attention  is  thus  both 
involuntary  because  of  their  general  interest  in 
the  thread  of  the  series,  and  voluntary  because  of 
their  desire  to  hear  your  teaching  about  it.  This 
expedient  has  great  pedagogical  value  because  it 
contributes  to  larger  views  of  truth  than  the 
single  sermon  on  a  topic  once  in  a  while.  This 
may  require  the  advertisement  of  the  topics  in 
advance.  But  advertisement  is  not  necessary  ex- 
cept from  Sunday  to  Sunday. 

These  suggestions  by  no  means  exhaust  the 
expedients  that  are  both  effective  and  high- 
toned. 

There  is  a  caution  to  be  exercised  lest  in  the 
effort  to  gain  and  hold  attention  expedients  be 
resorted  to  that  take  so  strong  a  hold  upon  the 
attention  that  the  purpose  of  the  sermon  is  for- 


U         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

gotten.  The  illustration,  for  example,  may  be 
such  that  it  at  once  diverts  the  mind  so  thoroughly 
as  to  make  it  difficult  to  call  it  back.  It  becomes 
a  dangerous  rival  of  the  topic  of  the  sermon.  It 
sets  up  in  the  mind  a  competitive  establishment 
hard  to  deal  with.  This  *'  playing  to  the  gal- 
leries" is  a  political  expedient  for  holding  the 
evanescent  attention  of  a  crowd  but  it  defeats  the 
purpose  of  an  educational  discourse.  Probably 
the  striking  phrases  of  Mr.  Sunday,  and  to  some 
extent  those  of  his  feeble  imitators,  stay  in  the 
mind  longer  and  more  vividly  by  far  than  the 
truths  of  religion  they  were  intended  to  plant  in 
the  minds  of  the  hearers.  To  the  extent  that  such 
is  the  case  they  are  a  damage  rather  than  a  source 
of  strength  or  usefulness  and  should  be  avoided. 
Crowning  all  and  infusing  all  with  life  and 
power  is  what  we  call  '^  personality!*  That  inner 
sense  of  being  in  the  right,  and  a  force  of  will  that 
makes  a  man's  voice  thrill  with  a  mysterious 
something,  gather  up  all  that  I  have  mentioned 
and  so  unite  them  in  a  sort  of  personal  appeal 
that  on  almost  any  religious  topic,  and  to  nearly 
every  kind  of  a  congregation,  the  preacher  hav- 
ing it  will  gain  and  hold  attention,  and  thus  have 
the  first  requirement  for  teaching — educating, 
leading  out,  the  hearts  and  wills  of  men  to  better 
things. 


IV. 


//  the  trumpet  give  an  uncertain  voice,  who 
shall  prepare  himself  for  war?  So  also  ye,  un- 
less ye  utter  by  the  tongue  speech  easy  to  be 
u^iderstood,  how  shall  it  be  known  what  iA 
spoken?  for  ye  will  be  speaking  into  the  air. — 
I  Cor.  14 :  8. 


WORDS  AS  SYMBOLS 

Tn  HE  pedagogical  principle  concerning  "  sym- 
-*•  bols"  Paul  seems  to  have  understood. 
Jesus  also  knew  its  value  for  it  is  said  that  the 
common  people  heard  him  gladly. 

My  own  observation  as  I  hear  men  preach,  and 
as  I  read  the  printed  sermons,  confirms  me  in  the 
belief  that  many  of  our  ministers  have  not  pon- 
dered deeply  on  the  injunction  that  Paul  gives  us 
in  the  verse  quoted  above. 

There  is  a  reason  for  their  delinquency  very 
close  at  hand.  They  read  books  about  religious 
things  more  than  they  talk  with  folks  about  them. 
They  get  a  vocabulary  from  books,  and  they 
understand  it,  but  their  congregations,  not  being 
in  the  habit  of  reading  such  books,  do  not  under- 
stand their  words.  For  example,  I  suppose  every 
studious  minister  knows  what  idea  the  word 
"  functioning  "  is  intended  to  convey.  If  he  were 
to  ask  ten  of  the  common  men  in  the  congrega- 

45 


46         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

tion  what  it  means  he  would  find  nine  of  them 
do  not  know. 

I  read  this  morning  this  sentence,  "  From  a 
cosmic  point  of  view."  I  do  not  underestimate 
the  intelHgence  of  the  common  man  when  I  say 
that  nine  out  of  ten  will  stop  to  think  what  that 
word  *'  cosmic  '*  means,  and  then  will  not  be  cer- 
tain about  it.  In  both  these  cases  the  speaker 
would,  for  nine-tenths  of  his  audience,  be  "  speak- 
ing into  the  air."  In  a  somewhat  lesser  measure 
the  use  of  theological  terms  leaves  the  hearer,  if 
not  in  actual  ignorance  of  the  truth,  at  least  with 
confused,  and  perhaps  erroneous  ideas. 

There  is  a  responsibility  upon  all  cultured  men 
and  all  educators  to  help  the  people  to  the  use  of 
the  riches  of  language.  But  as  teachers  of  re- 
ligious truth  from  the  pulpit  this  responsibility 
dwindles  into  almost  no  importance  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  great  desire  of  every  good  minister  to 
press  home  a  truth  of  great  value  upon  the  minds 
and  the  hearts  of  his  congregation.  We  could  not 
forgive  Paul  if  he  had  said,  "  I  greatly  desire  to 
make  you  Corinthians  know  Christ  and  him  cruci- 
fied, but  I  must  first  give  you  an  example  of  fine 
writing  and  an  elegant  diction."  And  it  would 
raise  a  great  presumption  against  the  genuineness 
of  a  passage  of  the  gospels  if  it  read :  "  the  learned 
scribes  heard  Jesus  gladly." 

The  man  who  desires  to  teach  truth  must  give 
great  attention  to  the  simplicity  and  clearness  of 


WORDS  AS  SYMBOLS  47 

his  language.  I  once  gave  an  address  to  a  com- 
pany of  young  folks.  It  was  on  a  somewhat 
technical  theme.  I  tried  to  be  clear.  But  I  failed 
in  some  cases.  As  I  went  along  the  street  after 
the  address  I  overheard  some  one  say  to  his  com- 
panion, "  I  suppose  that  was  a  good  address  but 
it  was  too  educated  for  me."  If  I  had  cherished 
any  self-gratulation  before,  it  was  very  decidedly 
checked  by  that  remark.  It  will  never  do  for 
the  minister  to  have  such  comment  made  about 
his  sermons  by  any  considerable  portion  of  his 
congregation. 

But  how  shall  we  guard  ourselves  from  the 
error  ? 

Consider  first  the  origin  of  language.  There  is 
great  diversity  of  opinion  among  students  of  this 
subject. 

The  older  view  was  that  Adam  was  given  a 
language  full  grown  when  he  was  created.  Very 
little  of  that  idea  remains.  Others  think  that 
language  in  its  embryonic  stage  consists  of  some 
simple  sounds  by  which  the  soul  seeks  to  express 
its  own  emotions,  as  the  crying  of  an  infant. 
Men  "  shout  for  joy."  We  hear  people  singing 
at  their  work,  when  they  are  alone.  It  is  an  in- 
voluntary, solitary  language  of  a  heart  full  of 
contentment.  It  has  no  reference  to  other  folks 
and  no  desire  to  communicate  ideas.  No  opinion 
can  be  sustained  which  denies  the  fact  of  such 
soul  language. 


48         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

Another  theory  is  that  man  was,  and  always 
has  been,  a  social  being.  He  never  could  be  con- 
tented, like  the  eagle,  to  live  by  himself.  He  con- 
gregates. He  is  hungry  for  his  kind.  A  woman 
was  sent  out  from  the  city  by  some  charitably 
inclined  friends  to  have  a  home  in  the  country. 
She  had  food  and  air  and  shelter.  But  she  soon 
came  back  to  the  single  room  and  the  poor  air 
and  the  scanty  living.  When  asked  why  she  left 
the  paradise  of  the  country  and  came  back  to  the 
Gehenna  of  the  city,  she  replied,  "  The  air  is 
good,  and  the  food  is  good,  but  stumps  are  poor 
company.''  It  has  always  been  true  that  "  stumps 
are  poor  company"  for  men  and  women.  But 
company  is  not  much  company  if  there  be  no 
language  in  which  to  "  swap  ideas."  So  men  hav- 
ing this  hunger  for  mankind,  and  an  intelligence 
suited  to  their  situation,  had  furnished  for  them 
some  language.  It  was  primitive.  It  had  few 
words.  Its  gramniar  was  simple.  With  increas- 
ing experience,  and  with  accumulated  ideas  it  be- 
came richer  and  is  still  growing  richer.* 

The  changes  and  additions  result  from  new 
words  and  new  senses  of  old  words.  The  new 
words  come  from  dialects  of  various  places,  from 

*The  English  language,  for  example,  shows  that  when, 
in  1846,  Worcester  made  his  dictionary,  he  added  to  former 
works  27,000  words.  In  1857  he  added  19,000  more,  mak- 
ing 104,000  in  all.  Webster's  dictionary  of  1828  had  had 
70,000  words.  His  ''Unabridged"  of  1864  had  114,000. 
The  "  International "  of  1900  has  400,000.  The  Century 
contains  450,000  words. 


:WORDS  AS  SYMBOLS  49 

slang,  from  trade,  and  in  greatly  increased  pro- 
portion from  the  scientific  world.  Every  new  in- 
vention demands  a  word  to  symbolize  it. 

The  vocabulary  of  religious  life  has  grown  by 
the  addition  of  those  things  which  Jesus  added  to 
the  thought  of  men.  The  Hebrew  had  his 
vocabulary.  And  it  was  rich.  We  find  transla- 
tions of  it  in  the  Psalms  and  the  Prophets.  When 
Jesus  came,  and  the  church  was  enriched  by  his 
teachings,  religious  experience  became  richer. 
There  were  no  words  to  express  it  fully.  Then 
the  old  Hebrew  words  were  attached  to  new  ideas. 
For  example,  "  Church ''  was  enlarged  from  the 
old  conception;  "sacrifice"  became  not  so  much 
a  thing  to  make  God  favorable  to  us  as  to  show 
our  devotion  to  him ;  "  kingdom  of  God  "  changed 
from  a  racial  affair,  having  Jerusalem  as  a  center 
and  Jews  as  the  blooded  aristocracy,  to  a  company 
of  folks  from  every  nation  and  tribe,  but  all  rec- 
ognizing God  as  King  and  Jesus  as  Leader  and 
Friend;  "forgiveness"  took  a  broader  mean- 
ing; "  salvation  "  changed  from  a  matter  of  out- 
ward conditions  to  an  inward  attitude  toward 
God. 

Then  as  the  church  grew  and  became  an  or- 
ganized body  it  had  its  new  terms.  As  theology 
developed  it  made  its  own  nomenclature. 

Thus  the  vocabulary  of  religious  speech  grew 
to  its  present  size. 

The  function  of  words.     It  may  be  said  of 


50         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

nearly  all  words  that  they  are  arbitrary  signs  or 
symbols.  Why  or  how  they  were  chosen  we  do 
not  know.  They  are  here  as  signs  only.  Take 
the  word  "  sin,"  for  example.  The  eye  sees  a 
certain  set  of  marks.  We  call  them  letters.  That 
combination  of  marks  we  have  been  taught  tells  us 
that  in  reading  it  we  are  to  make  certain  sounds. 
These  marks  might  have  been  used  to  suggest  dif- 
ferent sounds. 

Those  sounds  we  associate  with  a  certain  idea. 
When  a  man  says  "  sin  "  in  the  pulpit  men  asso- 
ciate with  it  certain  notions  of  conduct  that  is 
below  this  standard.  But  his  idea  is  the  result 
of  teaching.  I  once  had  a  young  woman  of 
limited  education  come  to  me  for  examination 
preparatory  to  entrance  to  the  church.  I  asked 
her  if  she  had  felt  herself  to  be  a  "  sinner."  She 
replied  with  great  indignation,  "  No,  sir !  "  See- 
ing that  she  misunderstood  me  I  said,  "  Do  you 
never  feel  that  you  have  done  wrong?"  "Oh, 
yes,"  she  replied.  "  Very  often."  She  had  as- 
sociated with  the  word  "  sinner  "  the  wrongdoing 
that  is  ascribed  to  the  woman  of  Luke  7 :  37. 
Take  the  word  "  baptism."  It  consists  of  some 
marks  of  peculiar  shape.  They  are  the  represen- 
tatives of  some  other  marks  in  the  Greek  lan- 
guage. What  idea  do  these  marks  suggest?  It  is 
entirely  dependent  on  what  men  have  been  taught 
to  associate  with  them.  A  Baptist  at  once  thinks 
of  an  immersion.    Others  think  only  of  the  cere- 


WORDS  AS  SYMBOLS  51 

mony  connected  with  the  consecration  of  an  in- 
fant. The  whole  meaning  of  the  word  is  depend- 
ent on  the  teaching  that  has  been  given,  and  the 
use  with  which  the  hearers  are  famiHar. 

So  is  it  with  all  words.  I,  when  a  lad,  used 
to  hear  the  hymn,  "  I  Love  to  Steal  Awhile  Away." 
I  never  could  understand  why  any  Christian 
should  love  to  steal  anything.  And  just  what  it 
was  to  steal  "  awhile  "  went  beyond  me.  Another 
line  was  "  spend  the  hours  of  setting  day."  That 
meant  to  me  Sunday — the  day  in  which  we  used 
to  "  set  around  " — as  the  poor  grammar  of  our 
boyhood  called  it. 

It  is  astonishing  how  many  people  have  similar 
misconceptions  of  very  common  words.  The 
words  raise  imaginations  and  suggest  ideas  of 
many  different  sorts.  The  terms  "  communion," 
"church,"  ''hell,"  "inspiration,"  "infallibility," 
"soul,"  "spirit,"  "Pharisee,"  "hypocrite,"  and 
hundreds  more  are  liable  to  be  spoken  by  one  man 
to  convey  certain  ideas,  but  when  they  get  to  the 
other  man's  mind  they  are  loaded  with  a  very 
different  sort  of  freight. 

They  may  well  claim  the  epithet  that  a  promi- 
nent man  applied  to  the  words  of  his  opponent: 
namely,  "  weasel  words." 

Great  evils  may  come  from  this  dubious  and 
unenlightened  understanding  of  words.  Not  long 
ago  a  prominent  religious  teacher  wrote  a  paper 
on  the  "  deification  of  Jesus."    He  meant  by  that 


52         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

word  the  process  by  which  the  disciples  discovered 
the  divinity  of  Jesus,  and  called  him,  therefore, 
"  The  Christ.'*  But  the  audience — and  they  were 
ministers — and  the  editors  whose  fears  were 
aroused,  took  the  word  to  mean  the  ascription  of 
divinity  to  Jesus  which  he  did  not  deserve,  as  the 
Romans  deified  Nero.  Some  were  really  trou- 
bled to  think  that  a  good  man  was  thus  losing 
his  Savior.  And  others — especially  among  those 
editors  who  think  themselves  appointed  of  God  to 
flay  the  slightest  departure  of  any  man  from  the 
ideas  which  the  editors  inherited  from  childhood 
and  have  not  since  investigated — pilloried  the 
writer  in  the  weekly  religious  (?)  press. 

That  man  used  the  word  in  a  correct  sense. 
But  it  was  not  the  common  use  of  it.  The  un- 
learned misinterpreted  it  and  did  him  injustice. 
At  another  time  a  man  spoke  of  the  Bible  as 
*'  archaic."  He  used  it  correctly  but  in  an  unusual 
sense,  meaning  that  it  was  ancient  and  hence 
needed  interpretation  into  modern  thought.  His 
hearers  understood  him  to  mean  that  it  was  out- 
grown and  worthless,  hence  to  be  laid  upon  the 
shelf.    So  another  injustice  was  done. 

These  things  show  us  that  the  minister  has  a 
double  duty  in  this  situation.  He  must  find  sym- 
bols that  convey  the  ideas  he  wishes  to  put  into 
the  minds  of  his  hearers.  That  is  the  first  task 
he  has  on  hand.  He  has  a  second  and  subsidiary 
task  to  enrich  and  correct  the  language  of  his 


WORDS  AS  SYMBOLS  53 

hearers.  How  can  he  do  this  ?  The  'first  require- 
ment  is  that  we  preachers  have  a  clear  idea  our- 
selves. That  is,  that  we  have  an  idea  outside  of 
and  independent  of  any  words  we  may  commonly 
use  to  express  it  or  convey  it  to  others.  Words 
are  only  the  dress  of  ideas,  and  they  should  have 
more  than  one  suit  to  wear.  We  may  clothe  them 
in  another  suit  when  we  wish.  Once  secure  a 
clear  idea  and  we  can  make  effective  search  for 
expressions.  It  will  not  do  to  be  like  the  muddled 
preacher  who  said,  "  To  make  it  clearer  to  you 
and  to  me,  let  us  take  an  illustration.''  Clear 
thought  must  exist  before  it  can  be  clearly 
uttered. 

One  of  the  best  of  practices  is  to  paraphrase 
passages  of  scripture.  That  is,  express  the 
thought  in  your  own  language,  using  none  of  the 
words  of  the  passage.  If  you  can  do  this  you 
may  be  sure  you  have  the  soul  of  its  meaning. 
So  also  in  seeking  expression  to  an  idea — espe- 
cially a  somewhat  unusual  one — try  to  tell  it  in 
several  ways.  If  you  can,  think  of  it  as  it  rrfight 
be  spoken  to  a  cultured  audience.  And  then  think 
of  it  as  it  could  be  understood  by  the  unlearned. 
It  is  said  of  Thorwaldsen,  the  great  Norwegian 
sculptor,  that  he  was  at  work  on  a  statue  of  Jesus. 
One  day  he  called  in  a  child  and  asked  her  who 
it  looked  like.  She  told  him  it  looked  like  some 
of  the  neighbors.  He  called  her  again  after  a 
few  days  and  showed  her  the  same  with  his  modi- 


64  PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

iications  and  with  the  same  result.  He  was  much 
discouraged,  but  worked  on.  After  a  time  he 
called  her  again  and  this  time  she  said,  "  Why 
that  is  Jesus."  Then  he  knew  he  had  succeeded. 
When  a  man  has  tried  to  express  his  idea  until 
he  finds  the  common  man  can  understand  it  he  is 
succeeding  in  some  measure  as  the  Savior  did. 
Jhe  common  people  will  hear  him  gladly. 

The  next  important  discipline  is  to  learn  the 
language  of  the  people  to  whom  we  speak. 

I  have  spoken  about  words  being  audible  signs. 
If  a  man  does  not  understand  the  signs  he  will 
be  like  a  man  trying  to  read  messages  written  in 
cipher. 

People  have  some  language  for  religious  ideals 
but  it  is  limited  and  often  peculiar.  It  is  a  dia- 
lect. The  preacher  must  learn  to  speak  it  well. 
This  can  come  only  by  conversation  with  people 
on  the  subject  of  religion.  Many  a  man  reads 
intelligently  books  about  religion,  but  they  are  in 
the  technical  or  the  cultured  language  of  the 
day.  He  tries  to  preach  in  that  language  and  he 
is  "  a  barbarian  unto  them,"  as  Paul  expressed  it. 
In  pastoral  visitation,  when  it  is  really  such,  the 
conversation  turns  to  religious  things  and  that 
becomes  a  school  of  language  for  the  minister. 
He  finds  how  they  struggle  to  express  their  expe- 
riences. Often  they  have  found  an  expression  of 
great  force  which  tells  the  story  beautifully. 

Another  source  of  help  is  the  study  of  the 


WORDS  AS  SYMBOLS  55 

Psalms.  They  were  the  expression  of  experiences 
very  much  Hke  those  of  this  later  day.  So  force- 
ful and  so  appropriate  were  they  that  we  find 
ourselves  using  the  words  for  ourselves  more 
often  than  the  words  of  any  other  writings.  How 
perfectly  fitting  are  the  words,  "  The  Lord  is  my 
Shepherd,  I  shall  not  want."  Or,  "Jehovah  is 
my  rock  and  my  refuge.''  "  Out  of  the  depths 
have  I  cried  unto  thee,  O  God."    "  Bless  the  Lord, 

0  my  soul,  and  forget  not  all  his  benefits."  "  I 
was  shapen  in  iniquity."    "  O  wretched  man  that 

1  am  who  shall  deliver  me  1 " 

People  who  read  the  Bible  much  always  respond 
to  the  use  of  it  in  the  sermon.  It  carries  its  own 
meaning  to  them  easily. 

Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress "  is  a  valuable 
book  in  learning  the  expressions  of  the  common 
people.  It  is  true  that  some  of  the  ideas  that  lie 
back  of  the  allegory  are  now  out  of  date,  yet  most 
of  it  is  still  suitable  for  us.  We  are  still  pil- 
grims seeking  a  better  country  even  if  we  are 
not  leaving  a  city  of  Destruction.  We  still  have 
our  difficulties  though  we  are  not  so  deep  in  the 
"slough  of  Despond"  as  Pilgrim.  Doubting 
Castle  is  not  in  ruins  yet.  Interpreter  still  awaits 
the  coming  of  the  unlearned.  Beulah  sometimes 
cheers  our  weary  hearts.  The  river  of  Jordan 
awaits  us  all.  And  it  is  to  be  hoped  that,  as  we 
cross  it,  we  shall  have  the  help  that  Pilgrim  had. 
To  read  the  story  gives  us  words  and  figures  that 


56         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

are  useful  in  formulating  our  own  thoughts  as 
well  as  helping  us  to  teach  others. 

Some  books  of  synonyms  should  be  frequently 
consulted  and  words  always  used  with  fine  dis- 
crimination. But  at  all  costs  of  beauty,  and  all 
sacrifice  of  rhetoric,  and  all  disregard  of  elegance, 
speak  in  a  language  that  is  "  understanded  of  the 
people"  as  the  prayer  book  puts  it.  Otherwise 
it  will  be  "  speaking  into  the  air." 

I  do  not  forget  that  ministers  have  a  duty  to 
promote  Culture.  But  it  is  subordinate  to  the 
duty  of  being  understood.  It  is  not  necessary 
nor  desirable  to  be  coarse  or  uncouth.  In  my 
judgment  the  modern  apostle  of  slang  does  not 
gain  as  much  in  making  himself  understood  as 
he  loses  by  the  destruction  of  proper  reverence. 
There  are  some  things  that  are  so  refined  in  their 
nature  that  they  lose  by  any  coarse  way  of  de- 
scribing them.  The  packages  in  which  fine  goods 
are  sent  us  enhances  their  beauty.  The  way  a 
dinner  is  served  gives  flavor  to  food.  The  min- 
ister has  a  very  useful  opportunity  to  seek  and 
impart  expressions  as  beautiful  as  the  ideas  he 
expresses.  By  studied  and  frequent  use  he  may 
lead  his  people  into  the  possession  of  language 
itself  harmonious  with  the  best  ideas. 

It  was  said  of  a  writer  of  poetry  in  England 
that  "  he  just  failed  of  being  the  artist  in  words 
that  is  able  to  make  the  same  appeal  in  all  ages." 
"An  artist  in  words."     That  is  an  art  worth 


WORDS  AS  SYMBOLS  57 

while.  A  member  of  the  choir  in  a  large  Phila- 
delphia church  said  to  me  about  the  pastor,  "  Oh, 
he  is  an  artist."  The  subjects  about  which  the 
preacher  speaks  are  worthy  the  best  of  literary  art 
subordinate  to  utility.  Or  rather  the  finest  art  is 
to  make  art  useful.  This  speech  will  be  "  like 
apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver." 


/  have  spoken  unto  the  prophets  and  I  have 
multiplied  visions  and  by  the  ministry  of  the 
prophets  have  I  used  similitudes. — Hosea 
12:10. 


METAPHORS  AND  SIMILES 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  considered  the 
importance  and  character  of  words  as  symbols 
of  ideas:  and  noticed  how  it  is  essential  to  good 
teaching  that  the  words  be  understood  by  the 
hearers.  Following  upon  that  we  naturally  come 
to  the  use  of  words  to  suggest  ideas  that  they 
do  not  in  their  first  and  ordinary  sense  actually 
represent.  When  thus  employed  they  are  said  to 
have  a  figurative  use.  And  the  figures  are  chiefly 
Metaphors  and  Similes.  The  Metaphor  is  a 
word  used  to  convey  an  idea  through  a  second- 
hand process.  There  is  no  good  word  to  convey 
the  idea  directly.  E.g.,  Jesus  had  an  idea  about 
the  relation  of  his  disciples  to  the  world.  He 
expected  that  they  would  make  the  community  in 
which  they  lived  pleasanter  to  live  in,  and  would 
keep  it  from  drifting  into  immoral  conditions.  In 
looking  around  for  something  to  represent  his 
idea  he  thought  of  salt.  He  knew  that  salt  makes 
food  pleasant  to  the  taste,  and  keeps  food  from 
spoiling;  so  he  said,   "Ye  are  the  salt  of  the 

68 


METAPHORS  AND  SIMILES  59 

earth."  That  was  the  symbol  that  represents 
their  duty  and  influence  in  the  world.  The  salt 
itself  is  the  "basis"  of  the  metaphor.  The 
"  point  of  likeness  "  is  its  savoring  and  preserv- 
ing power. 

He  speaks  about  the  salt,  but  he  is  thinking 
about  his  disciples.  He  calls  them  the  "  salt/'  and 
talks  as  if  they  were  "  salt." 

Uses  of  metaphors.  Metaphors  have  several 
lines  of  usefulness.  They  convey  ideas  other- 
wise difficult  to  express.  No  one  fails  to  know 
what  was  meant  when  Jesus  said,  "  Ye  are 
the  light  of  the  world."  It  might  not  be  easy 
for  all  to  tell  what  they  understand  by  it,  but 
they  know.  The  idea  is  conveyed  swiftly  and 
accurately.  I  have  heard  some  very  odd  meta- 
phors which,  though  not  elegant,  accompHshed 
their  mission.  The  colored  woman  wanted  some 
soda  water.  She  called  for  "  that  water  that 
tastes  like  your  foot's  asleep."  The  deacon  who 
was  pleased  with  a  candidate  for  the  pastorate 

said  to  me,  "  Mr.  S is  the  man  who  struck 

oil  with  me."  A  homespun  man  of  noble  spirit 
and  easy  manner  in  prayer  prayed  for  the  min- 
isters: "O  Lord  bless  them  today.  Teach  them 
how  to  do  the  trick."  Paul  said,  "  We  do  not  han- 
dle words  of  God  '  with  sleight  of  hand.' "  Job 
said,  "  I  am  escaped  by  the  skin  of  my  teeth." 
But  metaphors  need  not  be  thus  semi-comic  or 
grotesque;  they  may  be  elegant  and  grand.    "  The 


60         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

Lord  is  my  Shepherd."  "  The  Lord  is  my  light 
and  my  salvation."  "Be  thou  my  rock  for  a 
house  of  defence  to  save  me."  "Let  them  be 
chaff  before  the  wind."  "Thou  hast  been  our 
dwelling  place  in  all  generations."  "I  will  say 
of  the  Lord,  he  is  my  refuge  and  my  fortress." 
Each  one  of  these  conveys  an  idea  about  God 
which  like  the  brush  lines  in  a  portrait  adds  some- 
thing to  the  expression — the  mental  picture  of 
God.  Without  these  we  could  not  convey  our 
thoughts. 

They  enliven  the  sermon.  Monotony  in  tone 
puts  folks  to  sleep;  and  sameness  of  phrase  does 
the  same  thing.  Metaphors  are  like  changing 
tones  in  conversation  that  vary  with  the  sentiment 
of  the  speaker  as  the  ripples  on  the  lake  change 
with  the  changing  breezes.  Each  one  calls  for  a 
kind  of  alertness  of  mind,  a  grasping  for  the  idea, 
and  a  kind  of  satisfaction  at  having  caught  it. 
This  is  the  charm  of  literature.  And  there  is 
room  for  the  literary  gift  to  use  itself  in  the 
sermon.  Indeed  the  literary  element  in  sermons, 
while  it  must  be  simpler,  and  more  modest  than 
in  books,  is  nevertheless  like  the  seasoning  of 
food.  It  gratifies  the  appetite  and  helps  the  men- 
tal digestion.  It  is  worth  while  to  study — to 
angle — for  good  metaphors. 

They  fix  ideas  in  memory.  One  must  use  his 
imagination  in  listening  to  the  man  who  speaks 
in  metaphors  and  this  use  is  what  helps  us  to  re- 


METAPHORS  AND  SIMILES  61 

member.  The  mind  acts  in  two  ways,  and  is 
therefore  more  active  and  hence  has  more  records 
of  what  is  said.  No  man  having  read  the  story 
of  the  Prodigal  Son  in  Luke  15  forgot  it. 

They  furnish  completeness  by  variety  of  expreS' 
sion.  They  are  like  the  different  views  of  friends 
that  are  given  us  in  photographs.  Combined  they 
make  complete  pictures.  Thus  in  seeking  to  con- 
vey the  idea  of  the  completeness  of  satisfaction 
that  Christ  furnishes  for  the  soul  of  man  and  the 
welfare  of  society.  "Jesus  is  the  Iamb  of  God, 
the  great  high  priest,  the  image  of  God,  the  Elder 
brother,  the  fullness  of  God  bodily,  the  Head  of 
the  church,  the  all  in  all  for  humanity." 

Speaking  of  the  Bible,  Dr.  Ferris  of  Phila- 
delphia said,  "  It  has  been  the  slave's  book.  It 
has  been  the  poet's  book.  It  has  been  the  child's 
book.  It  has  been  the  creator  of  countless  Good 
Samaritans.  It  has  been  the  hope  and  guide  of 
the  reformer.  It  has  done  more  by  the  words 
*  Father,  forgive  them '  to  breathe  peace  into  the 
jangling  and  warring  forces  of  human  ambition 
and  strife  than  all  the  systems  of  philosophy. 
Not  until  the  human  heart  no  longer  aches  with 
sorrow:  not  until  the  time  comes  when  there  re- 
mains no  more  a  prodigal  to  be  brought  back  to 
the  Father's  house;  not  until  the  time  comes  when 
the  despairing  and  desolate  call  no  more  for  help; 
until  tears  cease  to  flow,  until  love  has  no  task  to 
perform,  until  the  cup  of  cold  water  is  no  longer 


62         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

needed  to  refresh  the  parched  wanderer  on  the 
highway  of  life, — not  until  then  will  the  Bible 
lose  its  power  and  beauty,  and  cease  to  be  en- 
throned in  the  heart  of  our  humanity."  These 
repetitions  add  greatly  to  the  effectiveness  of  the 
already  beautiful  descriptions  of  value  to  the 
Book  of  books. 

Similes,  Very  much  less  imaginative,  but  more 
easy  to  grasp  the  meaning  of,  are  Similes.  They 
are  comparisons  expressed  by  the  word  "  like/' 
or,  "  as " — "  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like 
leaven."  "  As  cold  water  to  a  thirsty  soul,  so  is 
good  news  from  a  far  country."  "As  the  door 
turneth  upon  his  hinges  so  doth  the  slothful  upon 
his  bed."  "As  a  madman  who  casteth  fire- 
brands, arrows,  and  death,  so  is  the  man  that  de- 
ceiveth  his  neighbor  and  saith.  Am  I  not  in 
sport?  "  The  book  of  Proverbs  is  a  mine  of  such 
figures.  These,  like  the  metaphors,  furnish  count- 
less expressions  with  which  to  convey  the  myriad 
shades  of  truth.  They  turn  the  whole  world 
about  us  into  a  word-factory,  an  armory,  a  the- 
saurus, a  living  list  of  analogies  ready  for  use  in 
teaching  truth,  in  conveying  ideas  from  preacher 
to  congregation,  from  teacher  to  pupil,  in  reveal- 
ing the  beauty  of  the  Gospel. 

One  important  rule  is  that  such  terms  be 
used  as  the  hearers  are  familiar  with.  To  say 
that  the  pastor  is  the  "  fugleman  "  of  the  church, 
or  the  teacher  the   ^'  fugleman "   of   the   class, 


METAPHORS  AND  SIMILES  63 

means  nothing  to  those  who  are  ignorant  of  the 
word's  meaning.  To  say  that  the  teachings  of 
Paul  are  like  the  poems  of  Robert  Browning  is 
obscure  and  useless  to  all  but  thoughtful  students 
of  that  writer's  works.  Similes  from  history  are, 
to  the  non-reading  part  of  the  congregation,  with- 
out value  unless  they  are  given  with  sufficient 
fullness  to  be  self-interpreting.  Dr.  Jowett  has 
an  instructive,  exemplary,  and  suggestive  passage, 
"  Can  our  language  easily  say  all  we  have  got  to 
say,  or  does  it  fail  to  carry  the  glory  we  would  fain 
express.  Is  it  not  true  that  our  language  is  often 
too  big  for  our  thought,  and  our  thought  like  a 
spoonful  of  sad  wine  rattling  about  in  a  very 
ornate  and  distinguished  bottle.  .  .  .  When  Paul, 
in  Romans  12,  begins  to  be  hortatory,  preceptive, 
practical,  it  is  because  he  has  already  prepared  the 
rich  bed  in  which  these  strong  and  winsome 
graces  may  be  grown.  Every  precept  in  the 
twelfth  chapter  sends  its  roots  down  through  all 
the  previous  chapters,  through  the  rich  fat  soil 
of  sanctification  and  justification  and  the  mys- 
terious agency  of  redeeming  grace."  This  pas- 
sage exemplifies  two  of  the  strong  qualities  of  Dr. 
Jowett's  preaching — namely,  his  easy  familiar 
metaphors,  and  his  three  and  four  fold  repetitions 
of  his  thought  under  differing  metaphors.  They 
are  like  the  blows  of  the  hammer,  one  after 
another,  until  the  nail  is  in  and  the  head  set. 
To  do  this  well  requires  thought  and  the  exer- 


64         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

cise  of  the  imagination.  One  must  learn  to 
"  see  "  the  relations  of  life  and  the  functions  that 
material  things  perform.  Then  he  will  find  mate- 
rial always  at  hand.  An  earnest  purpose,  un- 
selfish, and, — except  to  be  an  effective  preacher, — 
without  ambitions,  will  be  to  his  powers  of  mind 
and  heart  like  the  sun  upon  the  fields, — it  quickens 
all  and  makes  all  fruitful. 


VI. 


Without  a  parable  spake  he  not  unto  them. — 
Matt.  13 :  14. 


ILLUSTRATION 

THERE  are  some  essential  parts  of  the  Chris- 
tian truth  that  we  are  commissioned  to 
teach  which  are  very  difficult  to  impart  by  use  of 
words  only.  With  our  best  efforts,  and  with  the 
most  carefully  chosen  phrases,  people  see  the 
truths  like  those  who  look  at  mountains  through 
the  smoky  atmosphere  of  an  August  day.  Noth- 
ing is  clear.  The  truth  about  forgiveness — how 
shall  we  make  an  audience  ''  see  '*  it  with  the 
mind's  eye?  Or  the  truth  about  the  grace  of 
God — by  what  words  alone  can  we  make  it  any- 
thing more  than  an  abstract,  and  hence  an  indefi- 
nite, thing  for  most  people?  The  truth  about  the 
strange  work  of  the  spirit  of  God  in  human 
hearts — what  vocabulary  is  sufficient  to  convey 
the  meaning  of  it?  These  and  other  truths  that 
are  fundamental  in  Christian  truth  are  never  lit 
up  by  the  sun  of  clear  apprehension  when  we  only 
use  words. 

But  we  are  not  left  powerless  before  our  task 
as  teachers.  We  have  what  is  commonly  called 
"  power  of  illustration,"  upon  which  we  can  de- 

65 


66         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

pend  for  the  most  difficult  problems  in  the  impar- 
tation  of  truth.  This  power  is  at  the  first  an  act 
of  our  own  imagination  and  second  an  appeal  to 
the  imaginations  of  the  hearers.  Professor  John 
Tyndall,  the  great  English  scientist,  used  to  say 
to  his  hearers  when  he  lectured  upon  physical 
sciences,  "  I  must  ask  you  to  try  and  visualize  the 
invisible."  Something  of  that  sort  is  the  purpose 
of  illustration.   To  visualize  the  invisible  helps  us. 

But  the  subject  that  is  commonly  called  the 
"  power  of  illustration  "  is  almost  necessarily  di- 
vided into  two  sections.  These  appear  at  first 
much  alike,  but  closer  examination  shows  that 
they  are  quite  dissimilar.  We  may  call  the  parts 
Illustration  and  Exemplification. 

Illustration  proper,  as  the  word  signifies,  is  a 
means  of  throwing  light  on  a  subject.  It  has  its 
real  basis  in  analogy.  It  compares  things  in  one 
sphere  of  thought  with  things  in  another  sphere. 
It  differs  from  simple  comparison  in  that  particu- 
lar. Comparison  puts  one  thing  alongside  another 
of  the  same  class,  but  illustration  puts  one  thing  of 
one  sort  alongside  a  thing  of  another  sort,  but 
these  have  one  or  two  points  in  common.  Thus 
parables  are  illustrations.  They  have  been  called 
earthly  stories  with  heavenly  meanings.  For 
example,  consider  the  parable  of  the  bad  steward. 
There  the  conduct  of  the  steward  in  his  relation 
to  his  master  is  called  wise  conduct  only  in  this 
one  particular:  he  made  use  of  his  present  oppor- 


ILLUSTRATION  67 

tunity  to  provide  for  future  needs.  There  are 
other  points  of  interest  but  they  are  all  left  out 
of  account.  He  was  dishonest.  He  was  negli- 
gent. He  deserved  some  sort  of  punishment. 
But  none  of  these  points  were  used.  What  the 
Savior  was  seeking  to  teach  was  that  men  should 
take  the  future  into  account.  He  wanted  to  make 
the  wisdom  of  that  very  evident.  And  so  he 
throws  light  on  the  matter  by  giving  this  story. 
He  made  his  point  so  plain  that  no  thoughtful  one 
need  misunderstand  him. 

Or  take  another  passage.  Jesus  wanted  to  im- 
press upon  his  readers  the  two  ideas  that  are 
central  in  the  Gospel,  namely,  that  salvation  is 
offered  to  all,  but  on  condition  of  their  faith.  He 
could  say  it,  and  he  did  say  it,  in  various  ways. 
But  to  make  it  more  clear  he  took  a  story  from 
the  Old  Testament  with  which  his  readers  were 
very  familiar:  "As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent 
in  the  wilderness  even  so  must  the  Son  of  man 
be  lifted  up  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  shall 
not  perish."  The  only  point  of  importance  was 
the  lifting  up  into  sight.  That  was  used  to  show 
that  as  the  serpent  was  lifted  up  to  men's  eyes,  so 
Jesus  must  be  lifted  up  to  the  view  of  men's 
minds.  And  as  all  who  believed  God  enough  to 
accept  his  way  of  deliverance  from  the  bites  of 
the  serpents  were  delivered  from  them,  so  all  who 
have  been  made  to  know  of  the  Son  of  man  and 
who  will  accept  him  as  God's  way  of  life  will 


68         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

surely  find  it.  If  we  read  this  illustration  in  con- 
nection with  the  story  as  told  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment the  thought  of  the  Savior  cannot  fail  to 
reach  our  minds. 

In  using  illustration  it  is  very  important  that 
the  point  of  comparison  is  made  clear  and  promi- 
nent; otherwise  minor  things  in  the  illustration 
will  steal  away  the  minds  of  the  hearers. 

Illustrations  also  have  great  value  in  awakening 
other  activities  of  the  soul  than  intellectual  ones. 
Knowledge  reaches  the  mind  through  the  senses.* 
Men  hear,  see,  and  then  think.  But  there  is  a 
kind  of  knowledge  that  comes  from  the  emotions, 
and  from  the  sensibilities.  When  truth  comes  in 
at  more  than  one  window  of  the  soul,  knowledge 
is  made  clearer.  Illustrations  open  windows. 
They  stir  emotions.  They  fix  attention.  The 
story  of  the  Prodigal  Son  at  once  sets  several  sets 
of  function  at  work.  We  are  interested  to  know 
what  came  to  the  young  man.  Curiosity  awakens. 
The  imagination  is  awake  as  it  seeks  to  picture 
the  conditions  of  the  young  wanderer.  We  feel 
sorrow  at  his  misfortune  and  pity  for  his  hunger. 
Then  a  new  gleam  of  hope  for  him  as  we  hear 
him  say,  "I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father." 
Solicitous  expectation  arises  as  we  see  him  ap- 
proach the  old  home ;  then  a  great  gladness  as  we 
see  the  father  come  out  to  greet  him  with  tokens 
of  glad  forgiveness.  All  that  sets  the  whole 
choir  of  the  soul  a-§inging.    The  whole  orchestra 


ILLUSTRATION  69 

of  sympathetic  gladness  unites  to  fill  the  measure 
of  joy  that  comes  to  us.  And  then  the  mind  be- 
gins to  think  out  the  lesson  of  it  all — God's 
readiness  to  forgive  the  repentant  sinner.  Thus 
by  a  dozen  sources  the  truth  about  God  comes  into 
the  soul ;  a  dozen  of  its  activities  are  set  in  motion. 
This  permanently  fastens  the  truth  in  mind. 

Illustration  is  valuable  in  arresting  the  minds  of 
hearers.  It  is  not  easy  for  an  audience  to  hold 
attention  to  one  monotonous  line  of  thought  any 
more  than  it  is  pleasurable  to  hear  men  speak  in 
monotony  of  voice.  The  illustration  varies  the 
action  of  the  mind,  and  enlists  the  whole  set  of 
its  functions  one  at  a  time. 

Illustrations  should  he  from  familiar  things. 
The  guiding  principle  in  their  use  is  that  which 
directs  all  pedagogy,  namely,  "  from  the  known  to 
the  unknown."  If  we  take  an  illustration  from 
things  unfamiliar  we  only  confuse  the  minds. 
The  danger  in  using  facts  from  the  physical 
science  is  that  the  facts  are  unfamiliar.  The 
minister  who  is  reading  as  he  ought  will  have 
many  such  within  his  reach  but  his  audience  is 
not  acquainted  with  them.  If  he  will  use  such 
it  is  necessary  to  explain  the  illustration  so  that 
its  point  is  clearly  seen.  For  example,  if  one  uses 
the  habit  of  some  animal  as  an  illustration  of 
parental  care  and  affection  it  will  be  necessary  to 
state  the  habit  of  the  animal  if  it  is  not  a  familiar 
one.    If  the  illustration  is  from  the  habit  of  elec- 


70         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

tricity  it  will  be  necessary  to  show  the  habit  to 
those  who  are  unfamiliar  with  that  strange  force. 
If  it  be  from  some  Bible  record  it  may  be  best  to 
relate  the  instance  for  the  sake  of  some  who  have 
not  recently  read  it. 

A  recent  writer  says  of  modern  religion,  "  It 
is  appearing  simultaneously  around  and  about  the 
world  exactly  as  a  crystallizing  substance  appears 
here  and  there  in  supersaturated  solution."  To 
the  primary  student  of  chemistry  that  is  a  very 
apt  illustration,  but  to  the  uninformed  it  is  mean- 
ingless. 

The  associations  of  an  illustration  are  very 
important.  Every  story  has  its  environment  of 
association.  And  the  environment  may  be  the 
most  effective  part  of  the  illustration.  When 
President  E.  G.  Robinson  was  pastor  of  a  church 
in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  the  question  of  slavery  was 
a  living  issue.  The  church  had  a  resolution  that 
it  should  not  be  discussed  in  that  pulpit  for  it 
created  division  among  the  members.  Dr.  Rob- 
inson was  an  enemy  to  slavery,  and  it  was  not 
easy  for  him  to  be  muzzled.  But  he  was  also  a 
prudent  man  and  did  not  think  best,  by  being  rash 
in  his  dealings,  to  deprive  himself  of  an  oppor- 
tunity to  influence  the  public  mind.  He,  therefore, 
adopted  the  policy  that  when  he  wanted  an  illus- 
tration showing  any  of  the  Christian  graces  in 
full  measure  he  would  take  the  case  of  some 
negro,  some  deeply  pious  slave.    In  that  way  he 


ILLUSTRATION  71 

would  create  both  a  sympathy  with  the  negro  and 
at  the  same  time  show  that  God  is  no  respecter 
of  persons  but  gives  his  grace  richly  to  all  that 
believe  in  him  without  regard  to  their  condition 
of  servitude. 

This  power  of  association  is  a  subtle  and  swift 
agency.  A  minister  once  used  as  an  illustration 
something  about  a  horse  in  the  stable.  One  of  his 
thoughtful  men  said  to  him  the  next  day,  "  Pas- 
tor, your  story  was  a  good  one  but  it  took  us  out 
of  church  to  the  barn  and  that  was  not  a  good 
thing  to  do." 

If  we  should  at  this  time  use  the  Kaiser  as  an 
illustration  of  any  virtue,  the  associations  of  bar- 
barous cruelty  and  deepest-dyed  savagery  that  go 
with  his  name  would  neutralize  the  illustration 
though  it  might  in  itself  be  perfectly  just  and 
correct. 

Saloon-keepers  may  have  qualities  that  are 
good,  but  to  use  them  as  illustrations  would  be 
futile  because  of  the  unmitigated  wickedness  of 
their  business.  The  associations  are  all  so  bad 
that  no  amount  of  good  in  them  personally  can 
sweeten  the  atmosphere  that  surrounds  the  thought 
of  them.  Barrels  of  skunk  cannot  be  sweetened 
by  vials  of  cologne. 

Mr.  Beecher  once  used  as  an  illustration  of  the 
reaction  of  selfishness  in  Wall  Street  the  habits  of 
a  drove  of  hogs  in  the  western  farms.  He  pic- 
tured them  as  huddling  together  in  cold  weathef 


72         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

to  keep  warm.  The  big  ones  in  the  middle  and 
the  little  ones  in  the  cold  outside  circle.  Some- 
times, he  said,  the  pressure  for  the  middle  becomes 
so  great  that  the  big  ones  in  the  middle  are 
crowded  up  on  top  of  others  and  are  thus  set 
forth  a  prey  for  cold  winds  from  every  quarter. 
So  he  said  the  big  dealers  who  are  in  the  ring 
may  get  where  all  the  greed  of  the  Street  con- 
verges upon  them.  This  illustration,  while  it  was 
perfectly  fitted  to  show  the  one  idea  of  the  reac- 
tion of  selfishness,  carried  with  it  such  an  asso- 
ciation of  these  big  dealers  with  hogs  that  the 
stigma  has  not  left  my  mind  in  all  these  many 
years  since  he  used  it. 

Illustration  must  not  be  taken  for  argument. 
This  is  a  common  danger  to  those  easily  given 
to  illustration.  It  must  be  remembered  that  rea- 
soning from  analogy  rests  upon  the  fact  that  the 
things  in  the  analogy  are  of  the  same  class.  It 
cannot  be  argued  that  human  mothers  will  forget 
their  offspring  because  birds  and  cattle  do. 

Nor  may  we  say  that  because  cattle  are  polyg- 
amous therefore  humans  should  be.  There  is  a 
great  difference  between  the  logical  and  the  ana- 
logical. 

Exemplification.  The  other  part  of  what  is 
called  "  illustration  '*  rests  on  a  basis  quite  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  illustration  as  we  have  been 
considering  it.  There  is  no  analogy  here.  The 
imagination  is  not  so  fully  awake  as  in  the  other. 


ILLUSTRATION  73 

It  is  rather  based  on  comparison  and  induction. 
As  comparison  it  puts  a  single  case  up  to  view 
as  a  sample  of  others.  Suppose,  for  example,  we 
wish  to  show  what  faith  is.  It  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  make  the  idea  clear  without  examples.  The 
scripture  says  faith  is  "  believing  that  God  is  and 
that  he  is  the  rewarder  of  those  that  diligently 
seek  him."  But  immediately  the  writer  begins  a 
long  list  of  examples  of  faith  to  show  more  fully 
what  he  means.  He  cites  Abel  and  Enoch  and 
Noah  and  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob  and 
many  others. 

Suppose  we  desire  to  define  forgiveness.  How 
difficult  it  is !  We  say  it  is  the  "  restoration  of 
relations  that  have  been  broken  by  wrongdoing." 
But  that  is  very  abstract.  One  could  say  that 
many  times  and  leave  his  audience  in  the  fog. 
But  when  we  say  it  is  that  which  took  place  when 
Jesus  spoke  peace  to  the  woman  who  was  a  sin- 
ner; or  when  Peter  met  his  Savior  after  the 
denial;  or  when  Paul  was  made  an  apostle  of  the 
gospel  he  had  sought  to  smother,  these  give  a 
definition  that  is  unmistakable,  and  at  the  same 
time  kindles  a  desire  to  have  the  experiences 
which  are  used  to  show  it. 

It  thus  becomes  a  persuasive  as  well  as  an 
example.  Suppose  we  wish  to  show  the  action  of 
God's  spirit  in  the  human  heart.  What  shall  we 
say?  What  phrase  is  able  to  describe  so  subtle 
an  operation  ?     We  may  talk  about  "  regenera- 


74  PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

tion"  or  the  "new  birth"  or  the  "birth  from 
above."  But  how  elusive  is  the  idea!  But  sup- 
pose we  relate  the  case  of  a  man  who  was  hostile 
to  religious  people  and  to  religious  conversation 
and  to  all  religious  meetings.  By  some  mighty 
agency  he  becomes  a  regular  attendant  of  the 
church,  a  student  of  the  scriptures,  a  man  of  glad 
testimony  at  proper  times  concerning  the  grace  of 
God.  That  makes  the  idea  concrete  and  there- 
fore reaches  the  minds  of  the  congregation.  All 
the  more  if  the  case  is  one  of  which  they  have 
some  personal  knowledge. 

Suppose  we  wish  to  show  the  wide  activity  of 
the  grace  of  God,  and  we  tell  of  the  woman  in  a 
heathen  country  who  in  the  natural  hunger  of  her 
heart  for  God  bows  before  her  idol,  and  with 
plaintive  soul  pours  out  her  longing  for  divine 
help  or  comfort.  The  soul  of  every  one  who 
hears  will  feel,  in  spite  of  some  theological  dogma 
to  the  contrary,  that  God  is  not  wholly  indifferent 
to  such  of  his  creatures. 

If  we  desire  to  tell  something  about  **  inspira- 
tion," we  can  tell  how  the  desire  to  tell  the  good 
news  of  Christ  pressed  itself  upon  Judson  until 
it  took  him  to  India.  Or  we  may  tell  how  the 
strange  something  kept  working  in  our  own 
hearts  until  we 

"Came  to  Jesus  as  we  were, 
Weary  and  lone  and  sad. 
We  found  in  him  a  resting  place, 
And  he  has  made  us  glad." 


ILLUSTRATION  75 

We  may  say  that  every  grace  and  every  virtue 
that  is  worth  seeking  has  examples  to  commend 
it  to  us  all. 

This  use  of  examples  has  also  the  very  soul  of 
the  scientific  method.  It  calls  to  the  witness  stand, 
as  it  were,  the  record  of  single  cases  and  from 
these  makes  the  verdict.  It  is  induction  from 
facts;  it  reasons  from  the  particular  to  general 
principles.  Thus  it  combines  the  value  of  the 
illustration  with  the  value  of  evidence.  It  both 
convinces  and  encourages,  or  rebukes,  as  the  case 
may  be. 

But  here  also  we  must  be  careful.  No  induc- 
tion is  safe  unless  in  the  points  involved  in  the 
argument  the  circumstances  are  alike. 

If  two  men  are  in  like  circumstances  we  may 
infer  that  what  one  will  do  the  other  will  do. 
Since  Jacob  and  ourselves  are  in  very  different 
circumstances  we  may  not  infer  that  because 
Jacob  dickered  with  God  and  promised  him  a 
tenth,  therefore  the  Christian  should  give  a  tenth 
to  missions.  The  circumstances  are  so  different 
that  no  inference  of  that  kind  can  be  made.  But 
we  may  say  that  since  Jacob  was  a  man  of  re- 
ligious mind  he  desired  to  make  some  return  to 
God  for  his  blessings,  therefore  we  may  expect 
that  all  religiously  minded  men  will  have  a  similar 
desire. 

Because  the  Lord^s  Supper  was  first  observed 
in  the  night  does  not  teach  that  it  ought  always  to 


ye         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

be  so  observed.  The  common  thing  is  that  it  be 
observed  and  its  symbolism  be  understood. 

Baptism  was  first  given  in  the  river  Jordan, 
but  we  may  not  infer  that  all  baptisms  must  be 
in  the  Jordan  or  any  other  river.  But  since  it 
was  given  to  all  believers  upon  their  confession  of 
faith  in  Jesus  we  may  infer  that  it  is  obligatory 
on  all  such  now. 

Because  churches  did  not  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment times  have  settled  pastors  we  may  not  infer 
that  they  should  not  have  them  now. 

And,  coming  out  from  the  New  Testament,  we 
may  not  infer  that  because  there  have  been  great 
revivals  in  which  many  were  brought  to  see  Jesus 
the  Savior  with  great  mental  struggle,  therefore 
all  men  must  have  such  struggles.  We  must 
know  that  the  mental  conditions  are  the  same  be- 
fore we  can  make  any  inference  on  that  point. 

These  are  sufficient  to  show  that  Exemplifica- 
tion properly  used  is  a  great  aid  to  the  teacher 
in  making  plain  and  impressive  the  truths  of  the 
religion  we  try  to  teach.  But  it  should  be  used 
with  care  and  discrimination. 

Before  leaving  this  subject  it  will  be  helpful  to 
some  who  think  they  have  not  the  aptitude  for 
illustration  to  say  that  the  root  of  it  is  in  all  peo- 
ple. And  it  can  be  remarkably  developed  by  care. 
I  know  of  several  men  who  had  as  they  thought 
a  very  deficient  power  of  that  kind.     They  were 


ILLUSTRATION  77 

mathematical  in  their  mental  make-up.  But  by 
patient  endeavor  they  became  exceptionally  good 
in  this  matter.  And  the  very  logical,  mathe- 
matical turn  of  mind  which  made  them  doubtful 
of  their  own  power  as  illustrators  did,  under  the 
training,  make  them  free  from  the  dangers  of  be- 
coming mere  story-tellers.  They  became  most 
interesting,  teaching  preachers.  Their  illustra- 
tions, instead  of  confusing  and  confounding,  eluci- 
dated and  edified. 


VII. 


'And  Paul  reasoned  in  the  synagogue  every 
Sabbath  and  persuaded  both  Jesus  and  Greeks. 
— Acts  i8  :  4. 

Being  ready  always  to  give  an  answer  to 
every  man  asking  you  for  a  reason  of  the  hope 
that  is  in  you,  yet  with  meekness  and  fear. 
^1  Pet.  3 :  15. 


REASONING 

T  HAVE  said  in  a  previous  discussion  that 
■■'  logic  is  not  a  set  of  rules  for  thinking  imposed 
upon  people,  but  is  a  statement  of  the  way  that 
all  people  do  think.  It  is  a  chart  of  the  road  by 
which  the  mind  travels  from  uncertainty  to  cer- 
tainty about  any  subject  of  thought.  It  is  a  map 
that  shows  the  way  to  some  fountain  of  truth  as 
it  was  learned  by  some  one  who  found  the  spring 
and  blazed  the  trail  so  that  others  may  find  it.  It 
is  useful  for  those  who  seek  the  spring,  but  are 
not  able  for  themselves  to  find  it. 

Logic  does  not  invent  any  truth,  it  only  un- 
covers it.  It  is  by  some  asserted  that  Logic  does 
not  add  to  our  knowledge  at  all,  but  only  adds  to 
our  certainty.  But  with  the  speculations  of 
logicians  we  are  not  now  concerned.  Our  desire 
is  only  to  make  use  of  so  much  of  the  subject  as 

78 


REASONING  79 

will  help  us  to  be  more  effective  educators  in  re- 
ligious matters. 

Reasoning  may,  for  our  purposes,  be  classified 
as  Deductive,  Inductive,  Analogical,  and  Intuitive. 

Deductive  reasoning  makes  simple  propositions 
that  express  single  truths,  and  by  comparison  of 
one  proposition  with  others  makes  evident  the 
truth  of  other  propositions.  For  example,  to  use 
the  old  formula.  All  men  are  mortal;  John  Smith 
is  a  man;  therefore  he  is  mortal.  Or  this.  All 
inspired  scripture  is  profitable;  this  book  is  a 
part  of  scripture;  therefore  it  is  profitable.  Or, 
God  cannot  lie;  God  said  the  soul  that  sinneth 
shall  die;  therefore  the  sinner  will  die. 

Sometimes  a  series  of  propositions  is  used  as, 
for  example,  Paul  in  his  letter  to  the  Romans, 
10 :  13,  says,  "  Whoever  calls  on  the  Lord  shall  be 
saved."  How  can  they  call  on  him  of  whom  they 
have  not  heard?  How  can  they  hear  without  a 
preacher?  How  can  they  preach  unless  they  are 
sent?  Each  step  in  that  series  presents  a  truth 
that  is  evident  to  the  reader, — self-evident  we 
may  say, — and  each  one  is  a  stepping-stone  to  the 
next.  So  the  mind  climbs  up  that  stairway  to  its 
concluding  statement  that  in  order  for  all  to  have 
the  great  promise  of  salvation  preachers  must  be 
sent  to  them  with  the  message. 

Or  take  the  letter  to  Romans.  In  the  first  two 
chapters  he  shows  by  various  witnesses,  whose 
testimony  the  Jewish  readers  would  not  deny, 


80         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

that  all  men  come  short  of  the  things  that  God 
desires  for  them.  That  every  one  fails  to  fulfil 
the  law,  and  of  course  all  are  condemned  by  the 
law.  But  men  do  not  want  to  be  under  condem- 
nation of  God's  law.  How  can  they  escape  if  they 
are  under  the  law?  Then  he  goes  on  to  say: 
But  there  is  a  righteousness  of  another  kind  even 
the  righteousness  that  is  by  faith  in  Jesus. 
(Rom.  3:21.) 

In  our  preaching  there  are  some  truths  that  will 
be  made  clear  and  emphatic  if  we  use  this  formal 
way  of  presenting  them.  If  it  is  well  done  it 
interests  common  hearers.  It  is  not  as  dry  as  it 
is  commonly  supposed  to  be.  It  is  at  least  a  frame- 
work for  our  buildings.  But  for  the  most  part 
the  frame  will  need  to  be  well  covered  to  make  it 
acceptable. 

Inductive  reasoning  is  examining  a  series  of  in- 
dividual cases,  and  from  their  testimony  inferring 
a  general  principle  for  guidance  in  life.  This  is 
the  so-called  "  scientific  "  way.  But  it  has  always 
been  the  way  of  the  thoughtful.  When  the 
Psalmist  wrote,  "  Walk  about  Zion  and  go  round 
about  her.  .  .  .  Mark  well  her  bulwarks,  con- 
sider the  palaces,  that  ye  may  tell  it  to  the  gen- 
eration following,"  he  used  the  inductive  process. 
He  examined  the  various  defences — her  towers, 
her  bulwarks,  her  palaces,  and  from  these  con- 
cluded that  she  was  strong  and  prosperous  and 
able  to  continue.     When  the  Syrian  rab-shakeh 


REASONING  81 

called  to  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem  '(II  Kings  i8:  33), 
*'  Hath  any  of  the  gods  of  the  nations  ever  deliv- 
ered his  land  out  of  the  hand  of  the  king  of 
Assyria?  Where  are  the  gods  of  Hamath  and 
of  Arpad?  Where  are  the  gods  of  Sepharvaim, 
Hena,  and  Iva  ?  Have  they  delivered  Samaria  out 
of  my  hand  ?  "  he  was  invoking  the  inductive  way 
of  reasoning.  When  Gamaliel  spoke  in  the  Coun- 
cil as  recorded  in  Acts  5 :  33-39,  he  reasoned  in- 
ductively. 

This  is  the  method  when  we  summon  various 
witnesses  to  confirm  the  statements  we  are  led  to 
make  about  the  Christian  life  and  faith.  It  has 
great  effect  on  really  inquiring  minds.  It  piles  up 
testimony.  It  accumulates  force  as  it  goes  on.  It 
raises  a  probability  and  then  confirms  it  by  re- 
peated instances.  For  example,  see  the  second 
chapter  of  Hebrews. 

Analogical  reasoning.  In  this,  truth  is  only 
partly  expressed.  If,  for  example,  one  says, 
Abraham  did  so  and  so,  the  unexpressed  idea  is, 
Then  we  ought  to  do  so.  Your  heavenly  Father 
sends  the  rain  without  partiality;  therefore  we 
ought  to  be  impartial  in  our  interest  in  our  fellow 
men.  Gabriel  did  not  bring  railing  accusations 
against  Satan;  therefore  we  ought  to  be  restrained 
in  our  speech  even  against  wicked  persons. 

This  analogical  process  underlies  the  allegorical 
interpretation  of  scripture — a  system  that  has 
more  things  to  condemn  it  and  more  to  sustain 


82         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

it  than  can  easily  be  enumerated.  The  basis  o? 
it  is  the  belief  that  events  in  the  Israelite  history 
and  great  persons  of  the  Jewish  race  were  inten- 
tionally set  forth  by  divine  purpose  to  teach 
spiritual  truth  by  analogy.  It  is  so  full  of  uncer- 
tainties, and  so  susceptible  to  misapplication,  that 
no  careful  preacher  will  attempt  to  build  any  doc- 
trine upon  it.  It  answers  very  well  to  illustrate 
with,  but  as  argument  it  is  almost  always  weak. 
But  there  is  a  limited  field  in  which  it  has  value. 
For  example,  if  the  Israelites  got  safely  across 
the  Red  Sea,  yet  because  of  their  sins  did  not  get 
into  Canaan,  it  may  be  safely  inferred  that  men 
who  begin  the  Christian  life  and  then  fall  back 
into  sinfulness  will  not  reach  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Or,  if  an  earthly  owner  will  take  away 
the  vineyard  from  the  servants  who  fail  to  return 
its  fruits  to  him,  we  may  infer  that  God  will  take 
away  from  unfaithful  churches  their  opportunities 
and  privileges. 

Men  with  good  imagination  development  make 
a  large  use  of  this  kind  of  reasoning. 

Intuitive  reasoning  (so  called  for  want  of  a 
better  term).  That  is,  it  comes  to  conclusions 
without  any  conscious  process  of  thought.  It  is 
swift  and  pretty  sure.  A  closer  examination  of 
it  shows  that  there  is  a  process,  however,  but  it 
is  subtle.  Almost  any  sermon  of  Jesus  is  a  good 
example  of  this  method.  It  is  like  this:  Some 
generally  accepted  truth  or  some  intuitive  moral 


REASONING  83 

principle  is  quietly  assumed.  It  is  not  mentioned, 
but  the  conclusions  are  based  upon  it  and  in- 
tuitively felt  to  be  true.  For  example,  Jesus  said : 
If  an  earthly  father  will  not  give  his  son  a  stone 
when  he  asks  for  bread,  will  God  do  less  when 
his  children  ask  him?  The  answer  is  of  course 
he  will  not  do  less.  That  assumes  that  men  are 
made  in  the  image  of  God  and  that  goodness  is 
the  same  in  God  that  it  is  in  men. 

In  the  Beatitudes  Jesus  said,  "  Blessed  are  the 
poor  in  spirit  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
We  ask  why  are  they  blessed?  and  the  answer  is, 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
said  to  be  one  in  which  all  those  who  enter  it  will 
be  happy  in  all  things.  That  teaching  all  Jews 
believed.  It  was  assumed  to  be  accepted  by  all 
his  hearers.  And  when  he  said  the  poor  in  spirit 
would  enter  it,  it  was  evident  they  are  blessed. 
So  in  all  his  teaching  there  is  this  undercurrent 
of  assumed  ideas  and  beliefs  to  which  Jesus  ap- 
peals without  notice  as  the  basis  of  his  arguments 
and  exhortations. 

The  logic  of  exhortation.  It  is  common  to 
speak  of  exhortation  as  if  it  were  of  less  logical 
import  than  other  forms  of  address.  The  ex- 
horter  in  the  Methodist  church,  for  example,  is 
regarded  as  a  man  of  less  mental  training  than 
the  ordained  preacher.  But  I  think  that  is  an 
erroneous  idea.  Paul  did  not  exhort  by  teasing 
men  to  be  good.     It  is  not  real  exhortation  to 


84         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

plead  with  men  on  the  emotional  side  mainly. 
Those  who  fall  into  any  line  of  conduct  under  the 
appeals  to  mere  emotion  will  not  stay  in  line. 
There  are  many  men  who  have  the  gift  of  ora- 
tory and  emotional  influence.  It  is  a  mysterious 
gift  of  great  value.  But  unless  it  is  mingled  well 
with  the  logical  gift  its  results  will  be  like  morn- 
ing dew  in  June.  It  will  be  gone — evaporated  by 
noon.  It  was  said  by  a  man  who  heard  the  great 
oration  about  the  "  cross  of  gold "  that  he  be- 
lieved the  orator — until  he  got  home,  and  then 
he  was  ashamed  of  himself.  I  know  of  a  min- 
ister who  has  some  of  the  most  ill-founded 
doctrines.  He  has  a  large  congregation  of  white- 
headed  saints.  One  of  his  parishioners  in  a  for- 
mer church  went  to  hear  him  in  a  new  field.  His 
friend  asked  him  if  he  could  believe  what  tha^ 
man  preached.  He  replied,  ''I  do  while  I  am 
hearing  it."  To  educate  a  congregation  requires 
that  men  should  believe  what  is  taught  after  they 
get  done  hearing  it.  It  must  have  the  allegiance 
of  their  quiet  judgment  in  their  quiet  hours.  To 
exhort  men  in  an  effective  way  is  to  give  them 
truth  convincing  to  the  minds,  but  after  that,  or 
during  it,  make  the  appeal  that  is  filled  with  sin- 
cere desire  for  their  welfare.  Paul's  exhortations 
are  at  the  end  of  his  letters.  He  begins  with  argu- 
ment usually,  and  then  come  the  appeals :  "  I  be- 
seech you,  therefore,  by  the  mercies  of  God,"  is 
his  formula. 


REASONING  85 

The  logical  discipline.  In  order  to  use  the 
processes  of  logic  it  will  be  necessary  that  we  have 
the  processes  so  familiar  that  we,  as  a  sort  of 
second  nature,  think  and  speak  in  a  logical  way. 
One  feels  as  he  reads  the  Pauline  letters  that  Paul 
was  thus  familiar. 

And  in  order  to  gain  that  kind  of  familiarity 
it  will  be  necessary  to  study  the  rules  of  Logic. 
Many  of  the  readers  of  this  chapter  have  long 
since — it  may  be — laid  their  text  book  on  the 
upper  back  shelf  of  the  library.  It  will  pay  well 
to  clean  it  from  the  dust  of  years  and  read  it 
again. 

One  must  think  clearly  himself.  This  means 
careful  scrutiny  of  one's  own  thoughts.  He  must 
know  the  exact  process  by  which  he  came  to  his 
conclusions.  He  must  know  the  real  reasons  that 
control  his  actions.  Many  times  he  will  discover 
that  the  real  reason  is  not  the  one  he  at  first  would 
give  nor  the  one  he  is  actually  controlled  by.  It 
will  lead  him  to  open  his  own  processes  to  the 
light  of  inspection.  It  may  surprise  him,  but  it 
will  strengthen  him. 

Then  when  he  has  examined  them  he  will  need 
to  test  them.  Let  him  take  the  place  of  a  hearer 
who  is  critical  and  unwilling,  and  see  if  he  can 
find  a  flaw  in  his  own  arguments.  It  has  been 
said  of  the  Swiss  that  they  fight  better  on  retreat 
than  on  advance.  The  Germans  take  much  pains 
in  preparing  for  what  would  happen  if  in  any 


86         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

battle  the  enemy  should  drive  back  the  front  line. 
So  it  will  be  well  to  consider  what  will  be  the 
reply  we  make  to  one  who  finds  a  flaw  in  our 
reasons.  We  need  to  remember  that  a  perfectly 
sound  conclusion  may  be  stated  that  does  not  at 
all  come  from  the  reasons  given.  For  example, 
one  might  say  we  ought  to  believe  the  Old  Testa- 
ment because  the  Jews  did.  That  has  no  force 
because  the  Jews  might  have  been  mistaken. 

It  might  still  be  true  that  we  are  justified  in 
believing  the  Old  Testament  record,  and  having 
confidence  in  its  teachings.  One  might  say  we 
ought  to  keep  the  feet-washing  ceremony  in  the 
church  because  Jesus  gave  it  at  the  last  supper. 
That  conclusion  may  be  wrong  though  the  state- 
ment about  Jesus  is  true. 

It  may  be  good  and  necessary  to  keep  the  Sab- 
bath or  a  Sabbath,  and  yet  that  practice  be  not 
founded  on  the  custom  of  the  Jews  in  Jesus'  time. 

It  may  be  true  that,  for  a  Jew,  tithing  was  com- 
manded. It  may  be  true  that  one-tenth  is  the 
least  that  Christians  should  give  to  the  work  of 
the  church.  But  it  is  not  true  that  the  Christian 
ought  to  give  a  tenth  because  the  Lord  required 
it  of  the  Jews.  The  conclusion  to  give  is,  or  may 
be,  correct;  but  the  argument  is  without  value. 
It  may  be  true  that  churches  should  have  deacons. 
And  it  is  true  that  the  church  at  Jerusalem  did 
have  some  men  whom  they  called  deacons.  But 
it  does  not  follow  at  all  that  because  they  had 


REASONING  87 

seven  deacons  every  little  church  in  the  country 
must  have  seven,  or  that  they  have  any.  If 
deacons  are  needed  we  may  of  course  have  them 
and  base  the  case  on  the  need,  not  on  the  example 
of  the  church  in  Jerusalem. 

Before  presenting  any  argumentative  discourses 
test  the  arguments  v^ith  care,  for  if  you  appear 
to  be  incorrect  in  your  processes  it  will  lose  you 
the  confidence  of  the  best  men  in  your  con- 
gregation. 

Id  study  of  process.  Another  element  in  our 
preparation  for  argumentative  discourse  :"s  a  study 
of  the  processes  by  which  others  come  to  their 
conclusions.  All  men  have  reasons  for  their  con- 
duct. More  often  than  otherwise  they  are  not 
very  clear  in  their  own  minds  as  to  what  those 
reasons  are.  It  may  need  the  expositions  of  the 
pulpit  to  discover  to  them  their  own  minds. 
They  need  to  be  interpreted  to  themselves.  Men 
say  they  stand  by  their  church  because  they  think 
it  is  right.  It  may  be  that  it  is  because  their 
fathers  stood  by  it  and  family  pride  is  the  real 
reason.  Men  sometimes  say  they  are  desirous  to 
unite  all  churches  because  they  think  that  churches 
ought  to  be  one.  The  real  reason  may  be  that  they 
think  others  will  come  to  them,  or  that  it  will  be 
cheaper  for  them  to  maintain  union  churches  than 
to  have  separate  ones.  Some  man  may  hold  to 
opinions  with  great  tenacity  because  he  thinks  that 
if  he  does  not  the  truth  will  suffer.     One  man 


88         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

becomes  fairly  hysterical  because  he  hears  that 
some  one  discredits  the  story  of  the  virgin  birth. 
He  thinks  the  divine  character  of  the  Lord  is  in 
danger  of  being  denied.  If  that  be  his  fear  it  is 
important  to  show  him  that  if  Jesus  was  ever 
divine  it  was  long  before  that  birth.  That  was 
only  the  door  by  which  a  divine  one  came  into 
human  history.  His  argument  is:  Jesus  is  divine 
because  he  had  no  earthly  father.  To  deny  the 
virgin  birth  is  to  assert  that  he  had  an  earthly 
father.  Therefore  to  deny  the  virgin  birth  is  to 
deny  his  divine  character.  If  you  could  show  him 
that  his  first  premise  is  not  true  then  his  fears 
are  gone.  Many  people  think  in  this  fashion: 
"  True  Christians  do  not  often  go  wrong;  I  regret 
that  I  so  often  do  so;  therefore,  I  am  not  a 
Christian."  If  you  can  show  them  that  a  true 
Christian  is  one  who  is  trying  to  follow  Jesus 
though  he  often  fails,  his  fears  will  vanish  and 
he  will  become  happy  in  his  hopeful  endeavors  to 
improve.  Many  ministers  in  their  desire  to  con- 
demn wrongdoing  say,  "  If  a  man  does  so  and  so 
he  is  not  a  Christian."  That  means  to  the  com- 
mon hearer  that  to  be  a  Christian  is  to  have  at- 
tained already  a  very  high  grade  of  life.  That 
is  not  the  scripture  idea  at  all.  It  reads,  "  The 
bruised  reed  he  will  not  break  nor  the  smoking 
flax  he  will  not  quench."  Our  Lord's  teaching  is 
that  we  need  to  become  disciples  and  take  our 
place  among  his  scholars;  and  if  we  do  that  we 


REASONING  89 

shall  not  perish  but  shall  have  eternal  life.  In 
another  place  he  said,  "  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath 
life.'*     It  is  already  flowing  through  his  soul. 

It  is  a  great  but  most  useful  study  to  find  out 
the  erroneous  reason  of  people  and  correct  their 
premises,  thus  securing  a  correction  of  their  fun- 
damental reasonings. 


VIIL 


We  speak  that  we  do  know,  and  testify  that  we 
have  seen. — ^John  3:11. 

We     were    eyewitnesses     of    his     majesty.^' 
II  Peter  i  :  16. 


THE  POINT  OF  CONTACT 

ONE  of  the  great  things  insisted  upon  in  all 
works  that  deal  with  teaching  is  called  **  get- 
ting the  point  of  contact.'*  That  is,  finding  some- 
thing in  the  mind  of  the  pupil  in  which  he  is  in- 
terested that  can  be  made  a  stepping-stone  to  the 
thought  that  the  teacher  wishes  to  awaken  in  the 
pupil's  mind. 

This  requires  some  knowledge  of  the  pupil's 
interests,  and  some  ability  to  couple  it  with  the 
lesson  to  be  impressed.  The  study  of  the  child 
is  therefore  a  preparatory  stage  in  the  process  of 
educating  the  child. 

The  same  sort  of  necessity  exists  for  the 
preacher  in  his  educational  endeavors  but  it  finds 
expression  in  various  ways.  In  writing  about 
"  symbols  *'  I  have  said  that  we  must  use  those 
the  meaning  of  which  is  known.  That  is,  in  the 
matter  of  words  the  "point  of  contact"  is  in 
words  that  are  familiar.    Likewise  an  illustration 

90 


THE  POINT  OF  CONTACT  91 

must  be  understood  or  the  point  of  likeness  must 
be  made  plain  before  applying  it. 

I  want  to  speak  now  about  the  "point  of  con- 
tact *'  in  larger  matters.  There  must  also  be  this 
contact  in  the  ideas  we  seek  to  impress. 

We  must  find  a  contact  in  thought  foundations 
previously  laid.  No  thoughts  can  be  valuable 
which  have  no  roots  in  past  knowledge.  Ideas, 
ideals,  and  resolutions  grow  out  of  things  that 
preceded  them.  Rivers  are  the  combination  of  lit- 
tle streamlets.  If  one  were  to  seek  the  fountain- 
head  of  the  Delaware  River  he  would  go  up  past 
Philadelphia,  Trenton,  Port  Jervis,  Walton,  and 
Delhi,  and  out  into  the  springs  and  marshes  west 
of  the  Catskill  Mountains.  Christian  faith  is  like 
the  river.  It  starts  in  a  thousand  bits  of  inquiry, 
and  many  crumbs  of  information.  The  mind,  act- 
ing under  what  is  called  "  apperception,"  sorts, 
combines,  absorbs,  assimilates,  until  the  Christian 
idea  of  life  flows  full  and  controlling.  No  "  con- 
versions "  to  Christian  life  are  sudden.  They 
may  appear  to  the  outsider  as  such.  But  the  man 
himself  knows  that  the  impulses  and  resolutions 
date  back.  St.  Paul  stands  out  as  the  popular  ex- 
ample of  "  sudden  conversion."  If  his  were  such 
a  case  it  is  the  only  one  given  in  the  scriptures. 
And  he  said  of  himself  that  he  was  an  extreme 
case,  so  that  extreme  sinners  could  find  hope.  All 
other  cases  are  evidently  the  culmination  of  pre- 
vious mental  and  moral  experiences. 


92         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

But  even  Paul  was  exceptional  only  in  the  in- 
tensity of  his  emotions,  not  in  the  vital  elements 
of  it.  Long  afterward  he  said  that  at  the  time 
he  had  what  is  called  his  "  conversion  "  he  heard 
a  voice  saying,  "  It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick 
against  the  goads."  But  long  before  this  crucial 
hour  the  foundation  had  been  laid.  He  said  in 
Philippians  that  he  was  of  the  best  family  stock 
among  his  people.  He  was  among  the  best  stu- 
dents in  his  theological  class  at  the  school  of 
Gamaliel.  He  was  so  zealous  for  what  he  thought 
was  right  that  he  persecuted  those  whom  he 
thought  were  wrong.  In  Romans  he  said  that 
he  fought  evil  in  himself  with  great  energy,  but  he 
found  a  law  within  him  warning  against  the  law 
of  his  mind  that  brought  him  into  daily  sense  of 
being  a  captive.  This  acceptance  of  Jesus  was 
then  not  a  turning  from  irreligion  to  piety.  It 
was  only  the  sudden  ripening  of  experiences  long 
in  the  ripening. 

To  return  then  to  the  purpose  of  this  chapter, 
we  ask  what  is  the  relation  of  this  to  our  preach- 
ing? Our  answer  is,  We  must  find  in  the  lives 
of  our  hearers  some  real  foundation  and  build 
upon  that.  We  must  get  down  to  some  experi- 
mental things  and  in  some  way  connect  our  ideas 
with  them.  As  examples  from  the  scripture,  take 
the  story  of  the  first  disciples  as  given  in  John. 
Andrew  first  findeth  his  own  brother  Simon  and 
says,  '*  We  have  found  the  Messiah."    That  could 


THE  POINT  OF  CONTACT  93 

have  had  no  meaning  unless  Simon  had  been 
before  interested  in  the  Messianic  hope.  They  had 
both  been  looking  for  him.  As  soon  as  Andrew 
mentioned  it,  Simon  was  awakened  with  interest. 
It  was  the  point  of  contact  with  him. 

When  Philip  went  after  Nathanael  he  said, 
*'  We  have  found  him  of  whom  Moses  in  the  law 
and  the  prophets  wrote,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the 
Son  of  Joseph."  Nathanael  had  evidently  talked 
with  Philip  about  that  before.  He  was  interested 
in  the  subject  at  once.  That  was  their  "  point  of 
contact." 

When  Paul  spoke  to  the  people  of  Antioch-in- 
Psidia  he  was  a  stranger  to  them.  But  there  was 
a  "  point  of  contact "  in  the  fact  that  they  were 
in  a  synagogue.  That  meant  that  they  were  re- 
ligious. And  being  in  a  Jewish  synagogue  it  was 
evident  that  they  were  interested  in  the  prophe- 
cies. So  he  began,  "  Men  of  Israel  and  ye  that 
worship  Jehovah,"  and  then  he  went  on  outlining 
the  history  of  Israel. 

This  same  principle,  which  these  men  followed, 
though  perhaps  never  having  formulated  it  to 
themselves,  must  be  our  guiding  principle.  There 
is  no  use  in  wasting  time  on  things  that  merely 
interest.  It  is  not  difficult  to  get  attention  to  such 
things  for  a  little.  The  important  thing  is  to  get 
attention  to  the  kind  of  thing  that  can  be  made 
a  stepping-stone  to  what  we  are  trying  to  do.  For 
example,  it  might  be  of  interest  if  we  were  to 


94         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

speak  of  the  history  of  some  book  of  the  Bible. 
In  these  days  of  inquiry  this  would  have  an  inter- 
est for  many.  But  if  our  purpose  at  that  time 
was  to  advance  men  a  little  toward  Christ  Jesus 
that  subject  would  not  be  a  good  stepping-stone 
for  that  object.  Or  suppose  we  were  wishing  to 
lead  men  to  see  their  need  of  the  Christian  faith, 
it  would  not  be  helpful  to  tell  them,  "  Paul  says, 
all  men  are  sinners."  They  would  not  accept  that 
on  his  statement.  No  man  can  make  another  sen- 
sible of  his  sin  by  telling  him  he  is  a  sinner.  He 
will  probably  reply,  "  You  are  another."  It 
angers  men  to  tell  them  that.  It  may  be  ever  so 
true,  but  they  will  not  take  it  from  you  nor  from 
me.  We  must  find  some  other  *'  point  of  con- 
tact." That  is  a  point  of  antagonism  and  repul- 
sion. We  might  say,  "  The  best  of  us  are  sin- 
ners in  that  we  fail  to  be  all  we  desire  to  be. 
We  often  do  what  we  know  is  not  right.  There 
is  not  a  day  with  the  best  of  us  at  whose  close 
we  do  not  have  some  note  of  disappointment 
about  ourselves."  That  lays  the  foundation  for 
the  question,  "What  can  we  do  about  it?"  It  is 
a  stepping-stone  to  what  we  are  trying  to  impress. 
Suppose  we  desire  to  give  men  a  better  confi- 
dence in  the  scriptures.  It  will  do  no  good  to 
insist  that,  "  That  all  scripture  is  inspired  of  God 
and  is  therefore  authoritative."  In  these  days 
they  will  say,  "  How  do  you  know  it  is  inspired?  " 
But  we  may  call  attention  to  some  of  our  com- 


THE  POINT  OF  CONTACT  95 

mon  experiences,  and  then  show  how  they  are 
beautifully  expressed  in  the  words  of  those  who 
in  the  past  had  the  same.  We  can  show  how  the 
evil  consequences  of  wrongdoing  are  portrayed  in 
the  Bible.  We  can  refer  to  those  who  in  great 
stress  of  heart  have  found  faith  in  God  as  taught 
in  scriptures  a  comfort  and  a  stay.  Thus  they 
may  come  to  feel  that  the  scriptures  tell  the  truth 
about  our  relations  to  God  and  our  duty  to  men. 

If  men  are  in  doubt  whether  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  is  true  we  may  say  to  them  as  Jesus  did  to 
the  same  sort  of  men  in  his  day,  "  If  any  man 
will  do  his  will  he  shall  know  whether  the  doc- 
trine comes  from  God."  Ask  them  whether  any 
teaching  of  Jesus  which  they  have  fairly  tried  has 
been  a  disappointment  to  them.  The  Psalmist 
learned  that  way  a  long  time  ago  when  he  said, 
"O  taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  good;  blessed 
is  the  man  that  trusteth  in  him." 

The  great  problem  of  the  preacher  is,  "How 
can  I  get  the  grappling  hooks  of  my  thought  to 
take  hold  of  theirs?  How  can  I  get  down  below 
the  mere  traditional  beliefs  which  are  already  los- 
ing their  hold  upon  men  and  get  a  foundation  in 
experience  ? "  Unless  we  can  do  that  we  shall 
have  poor  success  in  leading  men  to  better  things. 

A  genuine  interest  in  men  for  their  oivn  sake 
is  one  line  of  influence,  one  "  point  of  contact " 
which  is  always  effective.  Such  an  interest  gives 
a  tone  and  a  potency  to  a  speaker's  words  which 


96         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

is  a  meeting-place  at  once.  Men  all  appreciate 
sympathy  and  are  all  interested  in  their  own  wel- 
fare. The  man  who  evidently  seeks  that  has  a 
foundation  upon  which  to  build.  The  results  are 
not  always  immediately  apparent,  but  they  are 
sure.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  in  one  of  his  lectures 
told  of  a  man  who,  under  the  preaching  of  the 
elder  Beecher,  Henry's  father,  withstood  all  his 
appeals  so  far  as  making  a  public  confession  was 
concerned.  But  when  Mr.  Beecher  moved  to  the 
West  he  left  the  grave  of  a  little  child  alone  in 
the  East.  This  man  took  up  the  little  body  and 
made  a  grave  for  it  between  the  lots  he  had  pro- 
vided for  himself  and  his  wife,  saying  that  Mr. 
Beecher's  child  should  not  be  left  alone.  That 
was  the  delayed  result  of  a  genuine  influence  of 
the  preacher  on  that  man.  I  take  it  that  real  sym- 
pathy is  never  wasted,  never  uneffective.  It  is 
always  a  meeting-place,  always  a  "point  of  con- 
tact "  from  which  real  influence  can  proceed. 

The  ''  point  of  contact "  must  he  thai  which  is 
useful  for  the  purpose  of  the  particular  sermon. 
What  would  be  a  good  one  for  some  sermons 
would  fail  in  others.  What  is  foundation  for  one 
kind  of  an  address  may  not  fit  another.  It  would 
not  have  been  effective  if  Paul  when  in  Athens 
had  begun  by  referring  to  Moses.  They  would 
have  asked,  "  Who  is  Moses  that  we  should  hear 
him?" 

There  are  introductory  remarks  that  are  useful 


THE  POINT  OF  CONTACT  97 

in  conciliating  a  hostile  audience.  Such  were 
Paul's  remarks  on  the  steps  of  the  tower  when  he 
was  arrested  in  Jerusalem.  But  these  are  not 
really  foundations  for  teaching.  The  real  point 
is  something  that  can  become  a  part  of  the  build- 
ing of  thought  we  are  seeking  to  have  them  con- 
struct so  that  what  they  are  led  to  think  will  be 
an  outgrowth  of  what  they  have  experienced. 
More  and  more  we  are  coming  to  see  that  the  real 
faith  of  the  Christian  man  is  founded  on  expe- 
riences. No  second-hand  faith  will  satisfy  us. 
And  we  are  coming  to  see  that  no  truth  is  valuable 
that  cannot  be  transmuted  into  experience  by 
adopting  it  heartily.  Hopes  for  the  future  are 
really  without  solid  underpinning  unless  they  are 
built  upon  experiences  in  this  world. 

Doctrinal  "  points  of  contact/'  In  a  somewhat 
different  field  this  principle  is  even  more  vital  to 
a  Christian  life.  There  must  needs  be  something 
in  the  nature  of  a  ''  system  of  doctrine."  Made 
up  as  we  are,  we  need  standards  with  which  to 
compare  our  judgments  in  individual  cases.  In 
Ethics,  for  example,  we  instinctively  decide  each 
judgment  by  comparing  our  first  impressions  or 
our  desires  with  our  standard  of  right.  So  in 
thinking  about  religious  truth  we  need  what  we 
may  call  a  "  standard  of  orthodoxy."  This  stand- 
ard may  be  one  of  our  own  making,  or  it  may 
be  one  that  we  have  accepted  from  the  church  or 
from  public  opinion.     No  small  part  of  the  pas- 


98         PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

tor's  duty  is  to  secure  in  the  minds  of  his  con- 
gregation a  correct  standard  of  truth.  This  is 
especially  true  in  those  churches  like  Baptist  and 
Congregational  where  authoritative  or  ecclesias- 
tical standards  do  not  figure  very  largely  but  in- 
dividual freedom  is  exercised.  But  no  man  has 
a  real  right  to  be  inconsistent  in  his  thinking.  Nor 
has  he  a  right  to  be  erroneous  in  his  opinions. 
And  no  pastor  can  be  indifferent  to  the  intellectual 
views  of  religious  matters  in  his  congregation.  It 
becomes  a  part  of  his  duty,  therefore,  to  help  in 
building  up  in  the  minds  of  his  hearers  a  correct, 
consistent  set  of  opinions  on  the  fundamental 
principles  of  their  faith. 

What  I  wish  to  emphasize  just  now  is  this: 
All  opinions  and  all  doctrines  to  be  valuable  must 
rest  on  facts.  They  must  be  gained  by  an  induc- 
tive study  of  experiences.  The  point  of  beginning 
in  any  system  is  in  what  some  one  experienced. 
The  scripture  is  all  of  that  sort.  David  expe- 
rienced a  great  trust  in  God  based  upon  his  ex- 
perience. He  wrote  out  his  feeling  of  trust  in 
the  Twenty-third  Psalm.  Peter  experienced  great 
change  in  his  life  by  reason  of  his  faith  in  Jesus. 
And  he  wrote  because  of  it  that,  We  are  made 
partakers  of  the  divine  nature  by  great  and  pre- 
cious promises.  John  wrote  about  the  things  we 
have  seen  and  handled  of  the  word  of  life.  Paul 
began  his  new  theology  when  he  had  a  call  from 
Jesus  on  the  way  to  Damascus.    From  such  facts 


THE  POINT  OF  CONTACT  99 

in  the  writers'  lives  their  doctrines  were  devel- 
oped. Each  year  of  life  added  something  to  the 
extent  and  the  certainty  of  their  faith. 

The  pastor,  therefore,  in  his  instruction  must 
build  on  experience.  To  thunder  out  his  own 
anathemas,  or  to  quote  to  the  modern  man  with 
pompous  tone  the  words  of  creed  or  confession 
as  if  they  were  the  bottom  stones  of  all  opinion 
is  to  waste  time.  Creeds  may  be  used  as  con- 
firmation of  views  tentatively  gathered  from  ex- 
perience. They  combine  a  vast  amount  of  expe- 
rience from  other  lives.  But  as  authority  they 
are  not  acceptable.  For  a  pastor  to  read  men  of 
any  sort  out  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  doom 
them  all  to  hell  as  if  he  was  a  divinely  appointed 
judge,  as  some  of  the  modern  evangelists  do,  is 
not  only  powerless  to  lead  any  one  in  the  path 
of  truth  but  is  disgusting  to  all  quietly  thinking 
men. 

To  follow  this  principle  will  sift  out  much  of 
so-called  theology  from  the  common  mind.  It 
will  re-examine  the  premises,  and  soon  mark  with 
the  brand  of  uncertainty  some  statements  of  wide 
circulation.  For  example,  it  is  not  uncommonly 
said  that  all  men  are  hopeless  sinners,  having  no 
power  to  choose  good  and  little  power  to  see  it 
when  it  is  before  them.  Therefore,  it  is  of  no 
use  to  urge  men  to  accept  a  savior  whom  they 
cannot  appreciate.  That  is  a  perfectly  sound  con- 
clusion if  the  premise  is  true.    But  the  premise  is 


100       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

not  true.  Every  man  knows  that  he  is  not  power- 
less. He  does  see  and  does  reject.  He  might 
choose.  No  man  as  he  looks  back  on  any  action 
but  knows  that  he  might  have  done  the  other 
thing.  All  theories  of  total  depravity  to  the  con- 
trary he  knows  better  than  to  say  he  could  not 
have  done  otherwise.  To  build  any  set  of  ideas, 
therefore,  on  an  assumed  premise  which  experi- 
ence and  consciousness  disputes  is  to  build  on  the 
sand.  No  man  condemns  himself  in  any  act  with- 
out in  that  very  condemnation  admitting  that  he 
might  have  done  the  other  thing.  And  no  man 
can  have  any  self-approval  if  he  does  not  know 
that  he  chose  the  way  he  went  for  himself. 

This  starting  in  the  facts  is  the  point  of  con- 
tact with  thinking  men  from  which  and  upon 
which  the  doctrinal  buildings  can  be  satisfactorily 
established  and  permanently  remain. 

"  Our  fathers  talked  a  great  deal  about  '  ex- 
periencing religion.'  The  phrase  has  died  out  in 
our  vocabulary.  I  wonder  why.  Can  it  be  be- 
cause religion  has  ceased  to  be  an  '  experience ' 
to  us,  and  has  become  a  mere  theory?  Perhaps 
it  is  what  Leslie  Stephen  so  caustically  calls  a 
'fine  art*  What  is  Christianity?  A  song, 
whose  rhythmic  cadence  soothes  the  imagination, 
and  satisfies  the  esthetic  sense!  A  picture,  dra- 
matic or  pathetic,  that  leaves  a  lingering  senti- 
ment in  the  soul!  A  doctrine,  to  be  studied  and 
discussed  and  argued,  until  the  mind  grasps  its 


THE  POINT  OF  CONTACT  101 

significance!  A  dream  of  old  Galilee,  that  tells 
of  the  glory  and  beauty  of  One  who  lived  under 
Syrian  skies!  No,  Christianity  is  more  than 
these.    It  is  a  life"  * 

♦George  Hooper  Ferris,  Philadelphia. 


IX. 

Christ  suffered  for  you,  leaving  you  an  exam- 
ple that  ye  should  follow  in  his  steps. — 
I  Peter  2:21. 

IDEALS 


THERE  is  a  great  difference  between  an  ideal 
life  and  an  ideal  "in''  life.  That  little 
word  "  in  "  changes  the  meaning  of  the  sentence 
from  a  general  standard  of  Hfe  to  the  very  mo- 
tive of  life;  from  the  goal  toward  which  the 
runners  are  all  to  look  as  they  run  to  the  runner 
himself;  from  an  idea  of  good  health  to  the  care 
with  which  we  seek  it.  A  man  may  have  a  very 
high  ideal  of  Hfe  and  be  a  very  low  man  in  life. 
He  may  have  a  deficient  ideal  and  be  very  high 
in  the  quality  of  his  life.  With  the  Christian 
Jesus  is  the  ideal  man — the  man  we  know  we 
ought  to  be  like.  Our  ideal  is  the  man  we  really 
try  to  be  like. 

The  ideal  is  the  mainspring  of  life.  Whether 
it  be  high  or  low  it  controls  in  the  most  subtle 
way  the  course  we  run  and  the  way  we  run  it. 
A  minister  reads  about  the  kind  of  minister  the 
writers  think  he  ought  to  be  and  assents  to  it 
verbally.  At  the  same  time  he  tries  to  be  some 
other  sort  of  a  preacher.  He  may  imitate  the 
102 


IDEALS  103 

slang  of  a  Billy  Sunday  or,  swinging  to  the  other 
extreme,  he  may  try  to  preach  in  the  dignified 
style  of  a  Webster.  This  is,  on  the  surface,  a 
mystery.  We  may  see  great  icebergs  moving 
south  in  the  Atlantic,  going  against  wind  and 
Gulf  Stream.  It  looks  mysterious,  almost  un- 
canny. But  to  the  informed  it  is  simple.  Six- 
sevenths  of  the  bulk  is  under  water.  It  reaches 
down  into  the  cold  currents  that  run  south  toward 
the  equator  and  the  bulk  of  its  substance  is  con- 
trolled by  that  current.  So  men  go  with  the 
deepest  current  of  their  desires.  While  they  are 
evidently  facing  one  way,  in  their  hearts  they 
are  going  another  way.  Some  went  to  California 
in  the  gold  times  of  '49  and  became  thugs. 
Some  go  from  the  East  where  they  have  been 
members  of  churches  and  forget  the  church  and 
join  the  world.  When  they  were  at  home  they 
belonged  to  one  denomination.  After  they  got 
away  from  the  home  influences  they  joined 
another.  It  was  in  their  hearts  all  the  time.  The 
law  of  the  ideal  works  as  surely  the  other  way. 
Many  a  man  has  remained  in  bad  company  from 
force  of  circumstances.  When  he  could  he  broke 
with  them  entirely.  We  remember  how  Vice- 
President  Arthur  was  called  a  political  trimmer 
who  leaned  toward  all  sorts  of  machine  politics. 
The  whole  nation  was  afraid  of  him  when  he 
came  by  a  stroke  of  a  murderer  to  be  President. 
But  the  training  of  a  godly  father  and  mother 


104        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

was  the  deepest  current  and  he  swung  out  Into 
it  when  he  could  and  won  the  respect  of  all.  Mr. 
Cleveland  was  at  one  time  anything  but  a  man 
controlled  by  good  ideals.  But  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  deep  current  of  a  godly  father's  and  moth- 
er's influence  asserted  itself,  and  he  became  an 
active  member  of  the  Christian  church  and  was 
no  dishonor  to  it.  Many  men  have  lived  in  poor 
houses  because  they  had  no  better.  But  with 
prosperity  they  built  homes  of  beauty.  They  had 
the  desire  all  the  time. 

This  mighty  force  determines  the  direction  of 
men's  courses.  It  measures  their  value.  It  de- 
termines their  future  destiny,  for,  as  Jesus  said, 
"  Out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life."  If 
we  ministers  can  affect  it  we  touch  the  helm  of 
life. 

It  will  be  helpful  for  us  to  analyze  this  power- 
ful element  and  find  if  we  can  the  process  of 
choosing  the  ideal. 

Individuation.  In  the  study  of  the  psychology 
of  youth  we  find  a  strong  tendency  amounting  at 
times  to  a  conscious  and  determined  purpose  to 
have  an  individual  life.  They  want  to  sit  by 
themselves  in  church;  to  choose  their  own  com- 
pany; to  select  their  own  amusements;  in  other 
words,  they  "  want  to  do  as  they  are  a  mind  to." 
That  same  tendency,  modified  by  experience,  and 
by  the  demands  of  society,  is  the  foundation  of 
democracy  in  politics,  of  Protestantism  in  religion. 


IDEALS  105 

It  has  its  great  nourishment  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment doctrine  of  an  individual  judgment.  "  Every 
one  shall  give  account  of  himself  to  God";  and 
in  the  doctrine  of  Providence,  "  Not  a  sparrow 
falls  to  the  ground  without  your  Father."  If 
men  are  sons  of  God  who  is  commissioned  to  be 
their  ruler?  No  preaching  can  be  of  influence 
if  it  ignores  this  tendency — this  process  of 
individuation.  A  further  study  of  this  tendency 
shows  us  that  it  is  the  determining  factor  in  the 
choice  of  our  ideals.  We  want  to  ''  do  as  we  are 
a  mind  to"  But  what  are  ''  we  a  mind  to  do  " 
and  why  are  we  "  a  mind  to  do  so  ?  "  Jesus  said 
to  some  Jewish  people  who  did  not  accept  him, 
"  Ye  will  not  come  to  me  because  ye  are  not  of 
God."  That  is,  there  was  a  reason  back  of  their 
rejection  of  him.  It  was  their  great  unlikeness  to 
God.  So  now  there  are  great  deep  undercurrents 
of  Hkes  and  dislikes  that  determine  what  we  are 
"  a  mind  to  do."  If  we  follow  the  stream  back 
we  come  to  some  as  yet  unexplored  wilderness 
where  the  stream  of  life  has  its  beginnings.  The 
"  mind  to  do  "  is  a  complex  affair.  Family  in- 
heritance, environment,  early  training,  later  in- 
struction, social  demands,  the  Holy  Spirit — eacK 
and  all  have  a  share  in  the  work  of  creating  the 
"mind  to  do." 

But  there  is  always  a  "  mind  to  do "  some- 
thing, and  that  something  is  to  attain  our  ideal 
in  life. 


106        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

Choice  rests  upon  estimate  of  values.  We  make 
our  choices  in  life  by  that  which  at  the  time  we 
deem  of  most  importance  to  us.  We  choose 
that  which  for  us  at  the  time  is  worth  most  or 
which  will,  we  think,  in  the  long  run,  be  of  most 
service.  If  a  man  thinks  that  money  is  of  more 
value  to  him  than  good  character  he  will  choose 
as  his  ideal  a  man  successful  in  getting  wealth  by 
any  means.  His  motto  will  be,  *'  Put  money 
in  thy  purse." 

If  to  him  good  character  is  of  greatest  value 
he  will  be  sure  to  take  a  righteous  man  as  his 
ideal.    In  all  cases  it  is  a  question  of  valuation. 

But  why  does  he  value  one  thing  more  than 
another?  That  question  reaches  toward  depths 
greater  than  we  can  fathom.  But  we  can  sound 
a  part  of  the  depths.  If  a  man  or  a  child  has' 
found  pleasure  in  any  action  it  is  the  natural 
thing  to  want  it  again.  If  it  gives  repeated 
pleasure  it  becomes  a  constant  object  of  pursuit. 
He  chooses  the  course  that  will  secure  it.  If  a 
child  never  heard  music  he  never  would  choose 
to  be  a  musician.  If  he  never  had  the  pleasure 
of  doing  things  he  would  not  try  to  do  them.  If 
he  never  knew  the  comfort  of  forgiving  he  would 
not  seek  to  have  a  forgiving  spirit.  If  he  does 
know  the  pleasure  and  the  profit  of  being  always 
truthful  he  will  make  truthfulness  one  part  of  his 
ideal  in  life.  If  he  knows  the  pleasure  of  helping 
others  he  will  put  a  wholesome  altruism  into  his 


IDEALS  107 

ideal.  So,  all  the  way  through  the  list,  experience 
in  the  pleasure  or  the  profit  of  right  actions  or 
harm  and  discomfort  from  wrong  actions  deter- 
mine the  lines  of  the  portrait  they  make  for  them- 
selves of  the  men  they  will  seek  to  be. 

There  follows  from  this  that  the  parents  are 
the  first  who  have  the  opportunity  and  the  power 
to  give  them  a  taste  of  what  is  good  and  a  taste 
of  what  is  bad.  Thus  the  appetite  so  to  speak 
will  be  formed  and  that  appetite  will  later  deter- 
mine the  choice  of  ideal. 

A  pious  old  minister  with  a  keen  insight  was 
deeply  concerned  in  the  welfare  of  a  fatherless 
grandson.  He  took  him  with  him  when  visiting 
the  poor  of  his  parish  in  the  valleys  of  the  Alps. 
When  they  entered  the  poverty-stricken  houses  of 
the  poor  the  boy  said,  "  When  I  am  a  man  I  mean 
to  take  the  side  of  the  poor."  That  boy  was 
Henry  Pestalozzi,  a  father  to  orphans  and  the 
founder  of  universal  elementary  education.  He 
tasted  the  joy  of  helping  others. 

The  motive  that  underlies  the  efforts  of  parents 
to  have  their  children  give  of  their  own  little 
funds  to  mission  work  is  to  give  them  a  taste  of 
its  joy,  so  that  they  will  afterward  choose  to  be 
generous.  All  the  great  features  of  a  good  ideal 
may  thus,  by  wise  parents,  be  in  large  measure 
predetermined. 

The  ideal  changes  with  experience.  A  liking 
thus  germinal  in  youth  may  become  controlling  in 


108        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

later  years.  The  ideal  may  become  more  com- 
plete and  decided  as  experience  increases.  If  a 
man  upon  mature  reflection  decides  that  to  be 
strictly  honest  is  best  for  him  he  may  come  to 
see  more  clearly  the  excellency  of  his  choice. 
He  may  be  instructed  by  many  agencies  concern- 
ing the  demands  of  honesty.  Thus  his  ideal  will 
become  richer  and  more  commanding.  He  will 
fight  more  earnestly  against  whatever  may  be 
contrary  to  it. 

It  may  be  that  a  man  has  deliberately  chosen 
to  be  a  mature  Christian  man.  He  has  settled  that 
primary  element  in  his  ideal.  He  may  have  said 
with  a  man  of  old,  "  As  for  me  and  my  house 
we  will  serve  the  Lord."  He  does  not  know  all 
that  is  implied  in  that  decision  but  he  has  made 
it.  Later  years  will  make  it  more  evident  that  he 
chose  wisely.  His  ideal  will  remain  but  will  grow 
into  larger  proportions  and  more  beauty  of 
holiness. 

When  are  ideals  formed?  A  large  proportion 
of  them  are  formed  early  in  life.  Two  leading 
historians  of  America, — Prescott  and  Parkman, — 
made  the  choice  of  their  life  work  as  historians 
while  in  college.  They  followed  the  choice.  It 
was  their  great  contribution  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  history  of  America's  early  days.  Nearly  all 
ministers  have  had  the  first  movements  of  their 
heart's  toward  the  ministry  when  they  were  in 
their  teens.     In  the  matter  of  the  Christian  life 


IDEALS  109 

it  not  infrequently  occurs  that  the  true  estimate 
of  values  is  delayed  to  later  years.  By  some 
mighty  presentation  of  the  character  of  Christian 
life  men  are — the  spirit  of  God  co-operating — 
made  to  see  what  they  had  not  seen.  Their  esti- 
mate is  changed  and  therefore  their  ideal  changes. 
They  adopt  in  later  life  what  many  others  adopt 
earlier.    But  the  process  is  the  same. 

From  these  considerations  we  see  that  the  pas- 
tor can  be  of  great  service  by  presenting  to  the 
congregation  the  attractive  side  of  the  Christian 
life.  All  the  ability  we  have  can  find  use  in  this. 
To  tell  in  words  the  excellence  and  the  beauty  of 
holiness  is  a  task  worthy  our  most  careful  study. 
Many  of  its  beauties  are  unspeakable.  But  all 
may  be  made  agreeable.  It  will  be  helpful  if  you 
often  try  to  think  out  what  are  the  excellencies 
and  beauties  of  the  Christian  life.  Try  to  see  its 
beauty  for  yourselves>.  Then  read  the  expres- 
sions that  others  have  used  to  impart  their  con- 
ceptions of  it.  Afterward  carefully  seek  words 
and  illustration  to  convey  your  own  thoughts 
about  it.  If  the  ancient  preacher,  "  because  he 
was  wise  still  taught  the  people  knowledge  and 
sought  to  find  out  acceptable  words"  (Eccles. 
12:9)  when  he  had  so  meager  a  tale  to  tell  of 
God's  goodness,  much  more  may  we  spare 
no  pains  to  tell  the  goodness  of  God  and 
the  comfort  of  serving  him  in  an  attractive 
way. 


110        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

I  can  but  think  that  in  our  day  there  is  more 
endeavor  to  scold  people  for  their  shortcomings 
than  to  win  them  by  attractive  presentation  of  the 
Christian  life.  The  Psalmist  wrote,  "  1  will 
bless  the  Lord  at  all  times;  his  praise  shall  con- 
tinually be  in  my  mouth.  .  .  .  O  magnify  the 
Lord  with  me  and  let  us  exalt  his  name  together." 
(Ps.  34.)  A  young  man  of  whom  I  knew, 
brought  up  in  a  good  family  and  at  heart  disposed 
to  be  right,  declined  to  go  to  church  as  he  said 
"  to  be  lectured  to  all  the  time."  An  old  Chris- 
tian once  said  to  me,  ''  Molasses  catches  more 
flies  than  vinegar."  Men  are  not  made  better  by 
scolding  them.  It  is  said  by  teachers  that  boys 
are  sometimes  made  to  dislike  Arithmetic  because 
their  first  lessons  in  it  are  made  disagreeable  by 
poor  teaching.  In  times  of  great  discouragement 
the  minister  needs  to  visit  the  throne  of  grace 
until  he  can  see  through  the  clouds  and  be  trium- 
phant himself.  To  be  all  the  time  telling  people 
what  they  are  not  to  do,  and  what  things  they  do 
that  are  not  right,  makes  the  course  of  the  Chris- 
tian look  forbidding  to  the  young  and  the  old. 
The  "  common  people  heard  Jesus  gladly."  And 
it  was  because  he  told  them  that  the  poor  in 
spirit  would  have  the  kingdom,  and  that  God 
would  accept  the  sinners  who  came  to  him,  and 
that  there  would  be  plenty  of  harvest  even  if  the 
birds  and  the  tares  destroyed  some  of  the  good 
seed,  and  the  leaven  would  make  the  meal  to  be 


IDEALS  111 

leavened  in  time,  and  said  Come  unto  me  and  find 
rest  unto  your  souls. 

He  went  about  all  Galilee  preaching  the  glad 
tidings — not  the  doleful  ones — of  the  kingdom. 
I  do  not  mean  to  suggest  that  there  are  no  serious 
and  sad  and  awe-inspiring  things  to  be  spoken, 
but  the  prevailing  tone  must  be  joyous  and  tri- 
umphant. Our  weekly  papers  do  us  great  harm 
by  frequently  printing  the  records  of  the  incom- 
petency of  churches  and  their  earth-mindedness. 
More  often  they  tell  about  the  failure  of  the 
churches,  and  the  losing  of  power  over  the  com- 
mon people.  All  this  is  first  erroneous.  It  is  not 
true  to  the  whole  situation.  And  second  it  is  poor 
policy  to  be  telling  all  the  world  and  all  the  young 
Christians  the  family  frictions  and  personal  weak- 
nesses that  are  after  all  only  specks  on  the  picture. 

Present  the  finer  lines  of  a  good  ideal.  Most 
people  have  a  sort  of  charcoal  sketch  of  what  they 
want  to  be,  but  the  details  are  not  put  in.  To 
show  them  the  application  of  Christian  principles 
in  the  various  circumstances  of  life  is  to  show 
them  the  exceeding  great  value  of  the  Christian 
religion.  Their  estimate  will  grow,  and  thus  their 
devotion  to  the  ideal  will  increase. 

This  is  done  mainly  by  the  presentation  of  the 
lives  of  others  who  have  taken  the  same  ideal. 
In  this  the  records  of  the  Bible  characters  are  rich 
in  value.  A  pastorate  that  has  made  the  congre- 
gation to  be  familiar  with  what  underlies  the 


112        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

stories  of  Abraham  and  Moses,  Samuel  and  Elisha, 
of  Ruth  and  Boaz,  of  Isaiah  and  Hezekiah  in  the 
Old  Testament;  and  of  Matthew  and  John  and 
Peter  among  the  Apostles  of  the  New  Testament, 
has  done  a  great  work  for  the  ideals  of  his  peo- 
ple. But  Christian  biography  is  a  continuation  of 
the  list  quite  as  rich  and  useful  as  the  biblical  list. 
Piety  did  not  die  out  when  the  last  chapter  of  the 
New  Testament  was  finished.  As  good  men  live 
now  as  then.  And  in  their  comprehension  of  the 
Christian  life  those  who  live  now  have  a  much 
broader  and  finer  ideal  than  the  Apostles  them- 
selves. Paul  said,  "  I  have  only  laid  a  founda- 
tion; others  must  build  thereon."  Others  have 
been  building  ever  since.  At  times  the  work  has 
gone  slowly;  but  this  generation  is  far  richer  in 
its  ideals  for  society  and  far  more  efficient  in  the 
earthly  side  of  the  kingdom  than  any  one  was  in 
Paul's  time.  They  had  the  germinal  idea.  In 
their  day  the  blade,  later  the  ear,  and  some  time 
the  full  corn  in  the  ear  will  appear.  Let  me  not 
be  understood  to  say  that  the  ideals  of  the  indi- 
vidual life  were  incorrect,  or  that  they  were  not 
fully  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  the  kingdom. 
They  were.  But  they  did  not  know,  and  could 
not  know,  the  sweep  of  the  Christian  gospel 
through  the  world,  nor  the  subtle  power  it  would 
have  in  leavening  not  only  the  church  but  the 
whole  world  in  which  the  church  would  live.  The 
light  of  the  world  it  has  been;  the  salt  of  the 


IDEALS  113 

earth  it  always  will  be.  Christian  biography,  I 
repeat,  is  a  mine  of  wealth  for  ideal-making  ma- 
terial. And  we  include  not  only  martyrs,  who 
died  for  the  truth,  but  men  and  women  who  lived 
for  it;  who  put  the  best  brains  and  the  greatest 
wisdom  into  the  work  of  preaching,  teaching, 
organizing  on  large  scale  human  activities  for  the 
good  of  men.  The  founders  of  charities,  the 
establishers  of  hospitals,  the  investigators  of 
science  for  the  prevention  of  diseases,  the  conse- 
cration of  wealth  for  the  common  good;  the  stu- 
dents of  history  to  discover  the  best  way  to 
govern  men;  the  musicians  who  have  sought  to 
uplift  our  hearts  in  great  oratorios;  the  architects 
who  have  sung  their  "  hymns  to  God  in  obedient 
stone" — all  these  are  diamonds  from  the  mines 
of  history  to  enrich  our  ideal  of  life.  Culture, 
broad  and  careful,  finds  its  field  of  usefulness  in 
this  work  of  ideal  making  by  showing  the  value 
of  the  Christian  life  to  single  souls  and  to 
society. 

A  neglected  Afield  of  study  for  this  work  is  the 
lives  of  women.  Once  a  request  was  made  of  a 
large  section  of  the  public  school  teachers  of  New 
York  City  that  they  secure  from  their  scholars 
the  name  of  the  person  they  would  rather  be  if 
they  were  to  be  some  one  else  than  themselves. 
The  reply  was  wide  in  its  scope,  but  the  astonish- 
ing thing  was  that  not  a  scholar  even  among  the 
girls  expressed  the  desire  to  be  like  some  woman. 


114.       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

The  superintendents  regarded  that  as  a  serious 
comment  on  the  teachers.  They  had  not  taught 
their  girls  concerning  the  lives  and  characters  of 
great  women.  It  was  not  really  a  fair  criticism, 
for  the  school  books  did  not  furnish  such  mate- 
rial. The  biographies  of  noted  women,  especially 
of  mothers  who  brought  up  families  in  the  nur- 
ture and  admonition  of  the  Lord,  ought  to  be  a 
theme  often  treated  in  the  pulpit  and  used  in  il- 
lustration. The  young  women  need  the  material 
of  that  sort  in  the  choosing  of  their  own  ideals. 
The  Bible  itself  is  not  abundant  in  such  material, 
but  Ruth  and  Hannah  and  Jael  and  Elizabeth  and 
Mary  and  Dorcas  and  Timothy's  mother  and 
grandmother  and  Priscilla  and  Lydia  furnish  sug- 
gestions for  good  thoughts  about  good  women. 

But  our  modern  life  is  as  full  of  noble  women 
as  the  heavens  are  of  stars.  Let  the  records  of 
missionaries  and  teachers  and  Red  Cross  leaders 
be  consulted  and  there  will  be  no  dearth  of  mate- 
rial suitable  to  enthuse  girls  with  noble  ideals. 

The  pasfor^s  largest  opportunity  is  in  presenting 
the  value  of  the  Christian  life  in  its  larger  aspects, 
Paul  wrote  that  he  determined  to  know  nothing 
but  Christ  and  him  crucified.  That  is  very  far 
from  saying  that  he  would  know  nothing  but  a 
crucified  Christ.  He  would  know  nothing  hut 
Christ.  What  a  knowledge  that  would  be!  He 
must  tell  men  all  that  he  could  about  him.  He 
told  of  his  resurrection,  of  his  exaltation,  of  his 


IDEALS  lis 

kingship,  of  his  sitting  at  God's  right  hand  until 
he  became  conqueror,  of  his  return  to  take  his 
people,  of  his  being  judge  of  the  quick  and  the 
dead.  It  is  written  in  the  gospel  of  John  that  as 
Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  so 
the  Son  of  man  must  be  lifted  up  before  the 
world.  To  preach  and  to  teach  about  Christ  so 
that  one  can  have  a  definite  idea  of  what  he  is 
to  do,  and  how  it  is  to  be  done — that  gives  a 
value  to  the  Christian  ideal  which  will  lead  men 
who  are  seeking  goodly  pearls  to  sell  all  they  have 
and  secure  it.  He  will  be  to  them  the  "  chief  est 
among  ten  thousand  and  the  one  altogether 
lovely."  They  will  "behold  as  in  a  glass  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,"  and  thus  be  "changed  into 
his  image  from  glory  to  glory  even  as  by  the 
spirit  of  the  Lord." 


X. 


//  any  one  is  a  hearer  of  the  word  and  not  a 
doer  he  is  like  unto  a  man  beholding  his  nat- 
ural face  in  a  mirror;  for  he  beholdeth  him- 
self and  goeth  away,  and  straightway  for- 
getteth  what  manner  of  man  he  is. — ^James 
1 :23. 


SELF-ACTIVITY 

AN  indispensable  result  of  all  true  educational 
'  processes  is  the  exercise  of  the  pupil's  own 
powers.  No  one  can  become  a  musician  by  simply 
studying  the  theory  of  music.  His  own  fingers 
must  strike  the  keys  of  the  piano;  his  arm  draw 
the  bow  of  the  violin;  his  lips  fit  the  mouthpiece 
of  the  cornet  before  the  first  elements  of  a  musi- 
cian can  be  found  in  him. 

Books  of  physiology  may  be  mastered,  theories 
of  gymnastic  cultivation  be  understood,  but  no 
half  inch  of  measurement  to  his  muscles,  and  no 
half  ounce  of  new  strength  to  their  power  can  be 
gained  unless  they  are  made  to  act.  The  boy  must 
lift  or  he  will  never  be  strong;  the  runner 
must  run,  the  thinker  must  think,  the  preacher 
must  preach  if  there  is  to  be  any  gain  in  their 
efficiency.  So  the  educators  must  study  the  art 
of  getting  pupils  to  act.  Self-activity  is  a  ''sine 
qua  non  " — a  "  without  which  nothing.'* 
116 


SELF-ACTIVITY  ll'T 

In  the  musical  field  it  is  not  difficult  to  secure 
it.  Every  pupil  expects  to  "  practice  "  from  one 
to  five  hours  a  day. 

Athletic  ambitions  lead  the  boys  to  run  and 
jump  for  prizes.  If  they  work  at  muscular  oc- 
cupations they  get  the  activity  incidentally  in  their 
tasks. 

But  when  the  teacher  is  imparting  ideas  and 
cultivating  character,  the  work  of  securing  the 
exercise  of  whatever  function  the  teacher  desires 
to  improve  is  complex. 

For  example,  if  a  teacher  is  seeking  (.o  impress 
the  value  of  honesty  how,  in  a  class,  can  he  call 
out  self-activity?  If  a  minister  is  preaching 
about  the  virtue  of  forgiveness,  how  is  he  to  in- 
duce men  to  forgive?  If  he  wants  them  to  have 
a  high  estimate  of  their  church,  he  will  need  to 
make  heavy  drafts  upon  his  reserves  of  ingenuity 
to  find  a  way  to  do  it. 

But  he  will  find  some  ways  at  hand  if  he  re- 
members that  some  of  the  functions  of  mind  and 
heart  can  be  exercised  very  much  by  the  im- 
agination. 

I  once  had  a  boy  in  my  church  who  stabbed 
another  boy  without  any  great  provocation.  I 
went  to  see  him  to  try  to  find  out  the  secret  cause  of 
it.  He  told  me  that  he  was  accustomed  to  read 
all  the  records  of  fights  in  the  daily  papers.  He 
had  been  "  putting  himself  in  the  place  "  of  the 
criminals  until  he  was  like  a  good  actor,  possessed 


118        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

by  the  criminal  of  whom  he  read.  Thus  his  mind 
had  become  trained  to  "  think  stab  "  and  his  hand 
almost  practiced  in  the  art  of  stabbing.  Thus  on 
the  slightest  provocation  his  "  will  to  stab  "  went 
off  like  an  explosive  at  the  tiniest  spark  of  fire. 

If  you  study  your  own  consciousness  you  will 
very  probably  find  that  in  these  times  when  you 
read  the  tales  of  war  atrocities  you  are  already 
half  prepared  to  take  vengeance  on  those  who  do 
them.  One  of  the  moral  damages  of  war  is  this 
blunting  of  the  soul  to  the  influences  of  mercy 
and  forgiveness.  It  is  easy  to  explain.  The  will 
to  do  warlike  things  is  half  exercised  in  the  im- 
agination. All  the  feelings  of  revenge  and  hate 
are  awakened  and  called  out  like  scholars  in  a 
fire-drill,  and  thus  become  experts  in  getting 
ready  for  a  real  action. 

This  principle,  so  effective  in  evil,  is  our  great 
ally  in  good.  Self-activity  can  be  very  closely 
approached  by  the  exercise  of  the  imagination  in 
the  lines  of  action  desired.  Thus  a  preacher  that 
much  of  the  time  presents  the  faults  of  people, 
their  shortcomings,  their  inconsistencies,  their 
semi-hypocrisies,  their  unsocial  conduct,  will  pro- 
duce a  querulous,  hypercritical  condition  in  the 
congregation. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  sweet  and  sunny  and 
hopeful  preacher  will  have  a  congregation  with 
whom  it  is  pleasant  and  helpful  to  worship  and 
work. 


SELF-ACTIVITY  119 

Coupled  with  this  we  must  seek  to  discover 
ways  that  will  commit  the  people  by  an  act  of  the 
will.  To  be  specific:  suppose  we  are  in  an  evan- 
gelistic meeting,  or  campaign,  we  need,  in  addition 
to  awakening  the  desire  to  be  a  Christian,  some 
a£t  by  which  the  will  is  committed.  This  is  the 
value  of  the  old-fashioned  "mourners'  bench," 
or  the  "  stand  up,"  or  the  "  strike  the  trail  '* 
devices. 

Many  an  evangelistic  sermon  has  been  success- 
ful in  creating  a  readiness  to  accept  the  Savior, 
but  the  custom  of  the  church  does  not  provide  for 
any  action  at  the  time,  and  so  the  man  goes  home 
and  the  impression  cools  off.  He  has  heated  the 
iron  to  workable  heat  and  then  plunged  it  into 
cold  water  and  it  is  hardened.  It  will  pay  well 
to  have  some  always-at-hand  method  of  getting 
the  will  at  work  every  Sunday,  to  secure  action 
on  the  part  of  serious-minded  people  which  will 
commit  them  to  the  Christian  life.  It  may  be  an 
opportunity  to  meet  the  pastor,  or  to  write  their 
names  in  a  book  for  that  purpose,  or  to  come 
forward  at  the  close  of  the  service — any  way  to 
conserve  the  impression  the  sermon  has  made  and 
not  send  men  home  to  forget  it. 

Suppose  you  have  a  missionary  sermon.  Of 
course,  you  are  not  satisfied  to  have  the  people 
know  about  missions.  You  seek  to  have  them  be- 
come partners  in  the  great  enterprise ; — to  "  take 
some  of  the  stock."     Some  provision  must  be 


120       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

made  to  "  secure  the  money  for  the  stock/'  I 
once  was  asked  to  preach  a  missionary  sermon  in 
a  strange  church.  I  did  so,  and  it  was  said  by 
some  that  the  appeal  was  *'  very  effective."  But 
I  learned  that  the  church  was  under  the  law  of  a 
few  men  who  said  "  we  never  take  a  collection." 
"  Our  people  are  all  poor  folks."  And  so  a  col- 
lection was  not  taken.  That  was  not  only  waste 
of  my  time, — just  burning  powder  in  fireworks 
for  display, — but  it  was  hardening  the  hearts  of 
the  congregation.  It  accustomed  them  to  emotion 
without  action  so  that  they  would  sleep  under  it 
as  men  who  sleep  on  the  cars  get  accustomed  to 
noise.  There  should  always  be  some  sort  of  pro- 
vision for  the  pledge  or  the  actual  contribution, 
or  some  identification  in  heart  with  a  specific,  con- 
crete mission. 

Suppose  you  are  seeking  to  secure  more  faithful 
attendance  at  the  church.  You  will  of  course  try 
to  show  the  advantages  to  be  gained  by  it.  But 
you  will  do  the  important  thing  if  you  say,  "  Now 
will  you  not  promise  yourself  to  come  for  the 
next  four  Sundays  or  Wednesday  nights?" 

But  some  one  may  say,  "  We  do  not  always 
have  these  concrete  things  in  mind;  we  are  aim- 
ing at  what  we  may  call  general  spiritual  culture. 
We  are  instructing  in  theology  or  in  the  graces 
of  the  Christian  life." 

It  is  true  that  such  aims  do  not  furnish  ways 
for  physical  self -activity.    But  there  are  ways  in 


SELF-ACTIVITY  121 

abundance  for  the  mental  activities  you  seek  to 
secure. 

In  the  case  of  the  reasoning  faculties,  all  rea- 
soning processes  followed  in  your  sermon  call  for 
the  activity  of  their  minds  as  they  follow  your 
thought.  This  is  the  great  value  in  the  skeleton 
of  a  sermon.  It  furnishes  a  track  for  the  mind 
to  follow.  If  a  hearer  is  kept  running  around  for 
your  main  purpose  like  a  hound  snuffing  for  the 
trail  of  a  fox,  not  much  educational  good  comes; 
but  if  there  is  a  line  of  thought  he  will  exercise 
his  mind  in  following  it. 

Suppose  you  seek  to  develop  the  moral  judg- 
ment. You  can  do  it  by  stating  problems.  You 
may  say,  "  In  such  and  such  a  case,  what  is  the 
right  thing  to  do?  "  "  Will  a  man  under  such  and 
such  conditions  be  justified  in  doing  so  and  so  ?  " 
"  What  will  the  effect  be  upon  a  man  who  does 
so  and  so?'*  *' Mr.  So-and-So  did  this  or  that, 
he  was  not  popular.  Why  so  ?  "  "  What  are  the 
ripened  fruits  of  untruthfulness  or  hatred?" 
Thus  you  will  lead  them  on  to  the  right  conclu- 
sion only  after  they  have  been  thinking  out  for 
themselves  the  proper  reply.  To  tell  them  dog- 
matically "  this  is  wrong  "  is  not  as  profitable  as 
to  ask  them  *'  is  this  right  ?  "  Such  methods  set 
the  minds  of  the  congregation  at  work.  They  do 
not  open  their  mouths  like  young  robins  to  be 
fed;  they  sally  out  under  your  guidance  to  find 
their  own  food  and  thus  grow  into  maturity  of 


122       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

thought.  The  question  method  is  a  very  efifective 
one  for  inducing  self -activity  of  mind. 

In  the  matter  of  church  support,  as  I  have  sug- 
gested in  the  chapter  on  church  management,  it 
is  important  that  the  young  be  enrolled  as  con- 
tributors, thus  giving  them  weekly  action  and 
weekly  thought  about  the  church. 

If  one  seeks  to  develop  the  grace  of  forgive- 
ness, the  most  that  seems  practicable  is  to  present 
the  duty  of  forgiveness;  to  portray  and  exem- 
plify by  illustration  until  it  is  made  to  appear  de- 
sirable, and  then  suggest  with  great  definiteness 
that  if  any  feel  estranged  toward  others  they 
should  at  the  earliest  opportunity  begin  some  acts 
of  kindness  toward  them.  Words  of  forgiveness 
are  good,  but  acts  are  also  good.  Forgiveness 
means  the  restoration  of  broken  relations.  This 
is  accomplished  by  resuming  the  relations.  To 
stand  off  and  be  "  willing  to  forgive  "  is  no  for- 
giveness at  all.  Horace  Greeley  used  to  say,  "  The 
way  to  resume  is  to  resume  " ;  and  the  way  to 
resume  kindly  relations  is  to  resume  them. 

Suppose  you  wish  to  increase  the  Bible-reading 
practice;  then  provide  some  plan  to  unite  all  in 
Bible-reading  on  some  subject  and  have  a  meet- 
ing soon  to  hear  what  they  have  learned.  'A 
paper  now  and  then  by  some  one,  read  in  the  mid- 
week meeting  on  a  Bible  character,  or  a  Bible  doc- 
trine, enlists  and  interests  the  writer  and  the 
hearers.    If  you  are  wishing  to  have  your  people 


SELF-ACTIVITY  123 

take  more  interest  in  community  betterment,  de- 
vise some  work  within  their  reach  that  they  can 
begin  to  do  and  the  taste  for  it  will  lead  on  to 
more  skill,  and  better  success  and  larger  plans. 

In  these  ways  you  will  find  your  people  will 
come  into  the  habit  of  thinking  in  practical  lines 
and  you  will  be  made  glad  to  see  that  they  are 
being  truly  educated  in  the  Christian  life. 


XL 

The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us. — II  Cor. 
5:14. 

MOTIVES 

I  HAVE  spoken  in  the  former  discussion  about 
the  forming  of  ideals  and  shown  how  they  are 
chosen  because  of  a  liking  for  them.  Then  I 
pointed  out  that  all  learn  to  like  good  things  by 
tasting  of  their  results.  This  led  us  to  the  place 
where  we  are  to  ask  how  can  we  get  people  to 
try  good  things?  How  can  we  get  them  to  what 
is  called  self-activity  along  these  lines?  This 
brings  us  to  the  subject  of  motives.  That  is,  to 
the  question,  what  means  can  we  use,  what 
springs  of  action  can  we  touch,  what  influences 
can  we  bring  to  bear  to  get  people  into  motion? 
iThe  following  is  from  a  daily  paper  concerning 
Mr.  Sunday's  methods :  "  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Mr.  Sunday's  methods,  frequently  attacked 
but  almost  invariably  successful,  are  worked  out 
to  the  last  word  or  action,  and  that  they  have 
been  reduced  to  a  science  long  ago.  He  leads  up 
to  a  climax  with  a  series  of  '  hell-roaring  cries,' 
as  he  describes  them,  and  then  begs  his  auditors 
to  *'  come  to  God."  It  is  then,  when  there  is  a 
pause  waiting  for  the  advent  of  the  "trail  hit- 

124 


MOTIVES  125 

ters,"  that  the  evangelist's  musical  director  begins 
playing  a  plaintive,  appealing  old  hymn.  Usually 
three  or  four  women,  sobbing,  rise  and  start 
down  the  aisle.  They  are  "  trail  hitting,"  and  as 
they  walk  along  the  voices  of  the  choir  rise  and 
men  start  down  the  aisle.  To  those  who  sit  back, 
half  fascinated,  Mr.  Sunday  shouts,  "  Are  you 
coming?  Jesus  is  here;  come  to  him!"  Others 
stand  and  start  toward  the  evangelist,  and  before 
many  moments  those  who  are  still  in  their  seats 
are  conspicuous.  It  is  apparent  that  they  are  de- 
termined to  be  wicked,  come  what  may,  and  in 
a  few  moments  they — most  of  them — join  the 
throng  on  the  trail.  That  is  an  appeal  to  the 
emotions  of  various  kinds.  First,  fear  of  future 
punishment  is  invoked;  then  the  emotions  awak- 
ened by  plaintive  music  and  a  tender  hymn;  then 
comes  that  mysterious  influence  of  sympathy  witB 
the  sobbing  women,  while  the  music  continues  to 
influence  the  heart.  Finally  there  is  the  appeal 
by  the  contagion  of  his  own  earnestness  coupled 
with  the  unwillingness  of  men  to  have  their  un- 
belief made  conspicuously  public.  They  prefer  to 
mislead  him  rather  than  be  labeled  ''  hardened 
sinners." 

Turning  now  to  the  counsel  of  a  man  long 
honored  as  a  "  pastor  and  teacher  "  :  *  "  The  spir- 
ituality of  the  Christian  religion  implies  that  the 
worshipper  is  brought  into  communion  with  God 
'''Oswald  Dykes,  "Dufe  of  a  Minister,"  p.  191. 


126       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

'  in  spirit  and  in  truth ' — ^not,  that  is  to  say,  by  the 
aid  of  sensuous  or  material  symbols  ,.  ,.  .  but 
through  the  word  addressed  to  the  reason  and  the 
conscience.  In  harmony  with  this  must  the 
preacher  also  commend  himself  by  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  truth  to  every  man's  conscience.  In 
other  words  it  is  on  the  naked  force  of  religious 
and  moral  truth  that  he  must  rely.  Efforts  to  play 
upon  the  passions  except  through  the  understand- 
ing are  unworthy  of  the  Gospel.  Even  appeals  to 
the  imagination  through  the  senses  merely  are  out 
of  keeping  with  it.  For  ecstasies  and  tumultuous 
conditions  of  the  soul,  created  by  a  heated  fancy 
under  the  excitement  of  numbers,  have  merely  a 
momentary  effect  and  do  not  produce  those  per- 
manent ethical  results  at  which  the  Gospel  aims 
:.  .  .  the  preacher  may  agitate  the  soul  of  the 
sinner  ;.  .  .  but  the  means  to  be  employed  must 
always  be  moral  and  spiritual  truth,  not  adven- 
titious nor  meretricious  aid  from  harrowing  pic- 
tures of  physical  torment,  the  exhibition  of  a 
crucifix  to  the  eye,  even  sensuous  details  of  the 
Passion,  or  the  mere  influence  of  the  falsetto 
voice." 

With  two  so  diverse  ideas  from  two  so  promi- 
nent preachers  it  will  not  be  unimportant  to  give 
some  careful  thought  to  the  general  subject  of 
motives.  It  may  be  better  at  the  outset  for  me 
to  say  that  in  my  own  judgment  neither  of  these 
views  has  the  whole  truth  nor  is  destitute  of  truth. 


MOTIVES  127 

There  is  truth  in  both — and  error  in  both — 
whether  I  justify  my  view  you  must  judge  after 
you  have  learned  my  reasons. 

What  is  a  motive f  All  action  is  directly  pro- 
duced in  response  to  the  command  of  the  soul. 
What  we  call  the  **  will  to  do  "  originates  in  the 
soul's  ''  feeling.'*  Some  emotipnal  awakening  goes 
before  the  doing  or  saying.  Some  kind  of  feel- 
ing, in  some  degree,  is  back  of  every  conscious 
movement  of  the  body,  or  every  word  thought- 
fully spoken,  or  every  determination  to  do.  This 
feeling  is  always  the  soul  seeking  its  own  comple- 
tion or  defending  its  own  possessions.  If,  there- 
fore, one  man  would  cause  another  to  act  he  must 
by  some  agency  awaken  an  interest — stir  the  feel- 
ing-life by  some  appeal  to  the  self-interest. 

When  there  is  presented  to  the  soul  any  object 
that,  if  it  were  possessed,  would  add  to  comfort 
or  self-completion,  there  arises  at  once  a  desire  to 
get  it.  That  desire  is  the  "  moving  force  "  which 
lies  back  of  all  action — that  is  the  ''motive" 
Note  that  "  motive  "  does  not  mean  the  thing  de- 
sired, but  the  awakened  desire.  Thus  money  is 
not  a  "  motive."  In  some  men  it  awakens  "  mo- 
tive," in  others  it  does  not.  Reputation  is  not  a 
"  motive,"  but  in  some  men  reputation  awakens  a 
"motive."  If  a  man  seriously  desires  money, 
then  showing  him  a  way  to  get  money  will  stir 
all  his  activities.  If  he  hungers  for  reputation, 
show  him  how  to  become  famous  and  he  will  do 


128       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

almost  anything  to  get  his  name  in  the  papers. 
Thus  we  see  that  only  those  objects  that  are  con- 
gruous with  a  man's  nature  or  character  awaken 
any  "  motive." 

Application  of  this  definition.  If  you  can  pre- 
sent any  object  or  any  truth,  or  show  any  path 
of  life  that  will  add  to  what  one  likes  and  desires, 
a  motive  will  at  once  arise.  E.g.,  if  a  man  feels 
himself  a  great  sinner  and  is  troubled  about  it, 
and  you  present  to  his  mind  a  gospel  that  will 
promise  him  forgiveness  and  victory,  he  will  seek 
to  get  it.  But  if  he  has  no  sense  of  sin  he  will 
say,  as  a  young  man  once  said  to  me  when  I  ap- 
proached him  about  the  Christian  faith,  "  I  appre- 
ciate your  interest  in  me  but  really  I  have  no  need 
of  it."  The  Savior  said,  "  They  that  are  well 
have  no  need  of  a  physician."  His  preaching 
about  salvation  found  no  response  in  the  self- 
righteous  Pharisee.  But  the  common  people,  con- 
scious of  their  need,  heard  him  gladly.  So  in 
trying  to  persuade  men  to  accept  the  Christian 
way  of  action,  thought  and  hope,  the  minister 
must  be  a  student  of  their  desires.  Some  com- 
mon meeting  ground  where  to  the  hungerings 
of  their  souls  can  be  offered  the  ''bread  of 
lifer 

Good  and  had  motives.  It  is  very  generally 
agreed  that  there  are  both  good  and  bad  motives. 
But  it  is  not  so  generally  agreed  what  ones  are 
good  and  what  ones  are  bad.    Some  are  satisfied 


MOTIVES  129 

to  say  that  any  motive  that  sets  men  in  motion 
to  do  some  good  thing  is  a  good  motive.  "  The 
end,"  they  say,  "  justifies  the  means/'  "  If  you 
v^ant  to  get  men  to  *  strike  the  trail,'  whatever 
gets  them  to  thus  commit  themselves  to  the 
Christian  life  and  join  the  procession  of  Chris- 
tians is  a  legitimate  motive."  Carried  to  the  ex- 
treme this  leads  to  the  Jesuit  doctrine  that  even 
a  lie  in  a  good  cause  loses  its  taint  of  sin  if  it  aims 
at  a  good  result.  Paul  expressed  his  view  on  this 
when  he  said  of  such  teachers,  "  Their  damnation 
is  just"  This  "  Gospel  of  Expediency  "  has  a 
very  wide  following.  I  am  concerned  just  now 
only  with  it  as  it  comes  into  view  in  preach- 
ing. Can  we  say  with  wisdom  that  any  appeal  to 
any  motive  is  good  if  its  aim  is  to  lead  men  to 
do  good?  Is  it  best  to  do  as  Mr.  Sunday  is  said 
above  to  do,  provided  it  gets  men  to  "  strike  the 
trail "  ?  Does  the  minister  need  fumigating  for 
wickedness  after  he  has  made  an  appeal  to  a  low 
motive  if  his  appeal  secured  a  large  missionary 
collection?  Are  members  of  churches  unworthy 
if  they  are  induced  to  "  come  in  "  by  personal  af- 
fection for  the  minister  ?  It  is  evident  from  what 
has  been  quoted  above  that  on  this  there  is  great 
divergence  of  view.  The  Jansenists  *  followed  the 
principle  that  in  teaching  no  appeal  could  legiti- 
mately be  made  to  any  motive  except  that  which 

*The  managers  of  a  school  about  1650  at  Port  Royal,  a 
village  about  eighteen  miles  from  Paris. 


130        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

arises  from  the  desire  to  conform  to  a  holy  stand- 
ard of  right — to  do  right  just  because  it  is  right. 
No  good  result  would,  in  their  judgment,  modify 
or  hide  a  bad  quality  in  a  motive,  but  on  the  con- 
trary a  result  otherwise  good  is  tainted,  if  not 
utterly  condemned,  if  it  was  secured  by  appeals 
to  a  motive  other  than  a  sense  of  duty.  Under 
this  idea  no  appeal  can  be  made  except  to  men's 
sense  of  duty  to  God.  "  You  ought  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian because  God  wants  you  to  be  one."  "  You 
ought  to  do  this  or  that  because  it  is  right  for  you 
to  do  so."  All  other  motives  are  to  greater  or 
less  degree  improper  and,  in  some  sense,  bad  mo- 
tives. The  "  naked  truth  "  as  quoted  above  must 
be  the  persuading  thing.  The  "  sword  of  the 
spirit  which  is  the  word  of  God"  must  be  the 
only  weapon.  This  question  is  well  worthy  great 
consideration.  As  I  have  said  my  own  view  lies 
between  these — and  drawing  from  each  important 
principles. 

The  fundamental  principle.  I  should  assume 
that  my  work  as  a  minister  is  in  the  last  analysis 
to  build  up  in  men  Christian  character,  and  in 
society  the  natural  application  of  Christian  char- 
acter to  the  community  life.  The  individual  is 
first  in  importance,  as  the  single  dollar  is  the  basis 
of  commercial  values.  A  ''  fiat "  Christian  is  no 
better  than  a  "  fiat "  dollar.  If  the  dollar  is  de- 
preciated all  values  shrink.  If  the  Christian  man 
shrinks  the  Christian  community  shrinks.     It  is 


MOTIVES  131 

not  so  much  to  get  good  things  done  as  it  is  to  get 
the  doers  to  be  good. 

Let  me  dwell  upon  that  for  a  moment.  When 
a  young  man  is  learning  a  trade  his  instructor  has 
an  interest  in  every  piece  of  work  done,  but  the 
dominant  interest  is  that  the  apprentice  should 
learn  to  do  good  work.  The  music  teacher  is 
pleased  when  the  pupil  sings  well,  but  he  is  not 
so  much  concerned  that  the  music  be  good  as  that 
the  pupil  become  a  good  singer.  The  Christian 
is  learning  the  trade  and  the  minister  is  a  *'  laborer 
with  God  "  in  teaching  him  the  trade — ^he  wants 
him  to  attend  church,  to  give  to  missions,  to  be 
peaceable  and  honest  for  the  sake  of  these  things, 
but  chiefly  he  wants  him  to  know  the  trade  of 
being  a  good  Christian  and  working  at  it  cheer- 
fully. The  Christian  is  learning  the  music  of  the 
kingdom,  but  the  great  aim  of  the  pastor  is  not  to 
hear  some  kingdom  tunes  but  to  make  him  a 
kingdom  singer.  This  I  assume  is  the  dominant 
purpose  of  the  minister. 

The  good  motive.  Every  intelligent  act  leaves 
a  residuum  of  character  in  the  actor.  As  leaves, 
that  come  and  then  fall,  all  leave  behind  them  a 
contribution  to  the  growth  of  the  tree,  making  its 
limbs  longer  and  its  trunk  larger,  so  every  exer- 
cise of  the  will  and  every  movement  of  the  emo- 
tions makes  its  contribution  to  the  upbuilding  of 
the  soul  in  some  direction.  If,  therefore,  lower 
motives    are    more    often    or    more   thoroughly 


132       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

aroused  than  the  higher  ones,  the  soul  becomes 
more  full  in  that  direction.  If  these  appeals  for 
good  aims  are  made  to  the  lower  and  inferior 
motives,  the  residuum  is  low;  the  increment  to  the 
soul  is  second-class,  and  the  result  on  the  main 
purpose  of  preaching  is  second-class.  In  deter- 
mining, therefore,  which  motives  we  may  wisely 
enlist,  we  see  that  the  decision  rests  on  the  basis 
of  its  residuum  of  character.  Those  being  the 
good  motives  that  leave  the  doer  of  actions  a  bet- 
ter Christian  for  having  done  them;  the  sayer  of 
good  things  a  better  person  for  having  said  them ; 
the  donor  of  money  a  better  man  for  the  giving; 
and  a  bad  motive  being  one  that  while  it  may 
secure  a  desirable  result  leaves  the  doer  with  a 
greater  balance  of  low  elements  in  his  character. 
The  resultant  judgment.  You  will  see  here 
that  while  one  set  of  men  value  the  objective 
results  of  actions  and  care  little  for  the  means  by 
which  they  are  procured  and  another  set  value 
only  the  motives  that  prompt  to  the  action,  the 
view  that  I  should  take  is  that  both  motives  and 
results  are  valuable  and  should  be  considered  in 
determining  the  course  for  the  minister  to  follow. 
Our  Creator  made  us  susceptible  to  these  various 
motives.  Each  one  has  its  value  at  times.  Life 
is  completest  when  the  whole  man  is  involved.  It 
would  be  good  to  secure  a  large  missionary  col- 
lection by  an  appeal  simply  to  the  sense  of  obHga- 
tion  to  give.     But  how  much  better  it  would  be 


MOTIVES  133 

if  in  getting  the  collection  the  donors  were  led  to 
give  from  intelligent  interest  in  the  world's  uplift, 
and  from  a  feeling  of  delight  in  being  partners 
with  God  and  with  other  men  in  carrying  the 
gospel  to  those  living  in  darkness. 

Bearing  upon  this  matter  it  will  be  of  interest 
to  learn  the  judgment  of  a  leading  writer  upon 
ethics.  Professor  John  Dewey,  speaking  of  mo- 
tives, says :  ''  The  first  quality  which  is  the  object 
of  judgment  primarily  resides  in  intention;  in  the 
consequences  which  are  foreseen  and  desired. 
■Ultimately  it  resides  in  the  disposition  or  char- 
acteristics of  a  person  which  are  responsible  for 
his  foreseeing  and  desiring  just  such  consequences 
rather  than  others."  This  being  true,  the  min- 
ister's task  is  to  reach  the  disposition  and  char- 
acteristics that  determine  the  act,  and  so  shape 
them  that  the  results  will  be  worthy  of  approval. 


XII. 


/  beseech  you  by  the  mercies_  of  God. — Rom. 
12:1. 


MOTIVES  (Continued) 

SINCE  we  have  seen  that  motives  of  various 
kinds  are  legitimate  if  along  with  good  results 
the  net  residuum  of  good  in  the  character  is  con- 
served, we  are  to  consider  some  of  the  available 
motives  to  which  we  may  appeal. 

These  motives  with  all  their  varied  possibilities 
of  power  lie  asleep  until  some  bugle  call  awakens 
them  to  action.  It  is  our  task  to  awaken  and  use 
them.  A  studious  examination  of  ourselves  shows 
that  truth  in  some  way  presented  to  the  mind  is 
the  bugle  call  to  which  they  each  respond  with 
alacrity. 

Fear.  Perhaps,  owing  to  the  history  of  preach- 
ing, the  first  one  that  comes  into  mind  is  fear  of 
various  sorts.  There  are  three  kinds  of  fear  that 
have  a  close  relation  to  religious  life.  The  fear 
of  future  punishment  is  one.  In  the  past  that 
has  been  the  most  prominent.  Very  early  the 
church  developed  that  to  the  utmost.  The  paint- 
ings of  "  great  masters ''  presented  physical  tor- 
ments with  such  a  seeming  relish  that  it  suggests 
they  were  fit  candidates  for  it  themselves.  Mr. 
134 


MOTIVES  135 

Beecher  once  said,  '^  Any  one  who  is  willing  to  be 
damned  for  Adam's  sin  ought  to  be/'  And  those 
who  can  revel  in  the  imaginations  of  such  things 
as  figure  in  early  church  paintings  and  are  threat- 
ened in  "  orthodox  "  teachings  of  past  centuries 
are  either  devilish  in  their  dispositions  or  hypo- 
critical in  their  statements.  But  at  the  same  time, 
both  the  apostles  and  their  great  teacher  appealed 
to  the  fear  of  some  future  punishment.  Paul 
wrote  that,  "  Every  one  must  give  account  of  him- 
self to  God  ";  and  that,  "  God  will  render  to  every 
man  according  to  his  works  .  .  .  tribulation  and 
anguish  upon  every  soul  of  man  that  worketh 
evil."  (Rom.  2:9.)  Peter  wrote,  "  If  God  spared 
not  the  angels  ...  he  knows  how  to  keep 
the  unrighteous  under  punishment."  (II  Peter 
2:2,  9.)  And  Jesus  said  that  the  Judge  will 
say,  "  Depart  ye  cursed  into  the  eternal  fire  which 
is  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels."  (Matt. 
25:41.)  No  Bible-believing  man  can  read  these 
things  and  deny  the  inevitable  sorrow  in  the 
future  for  some  of  mankind.  And  if  a  minister 
feels  this  danger  threatens  any  of  his  congrega- 
tion he  is  justified  in  using  this  appeal  in  the 
earnest  and  tender  spirit  that  it  must  beget  in  a 
Christ-like  man.  Godly  fear  can  be  aroused  only 
by  such  a  presentation  of  the  danger  that  lies  in 
the  path  of  wrongdoing  as  will  convince  men  of 
its  reality.  Dogmatic  statements  about  it  have  lit- 
tle weight.    If  one  can  somehow  get  a  foothold  in 


136        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

men's  own  experience  from  which,  to  show  the 
present  results  of  wrong,  he  may  find  it  possible 
to  lead  the  mind  on  toward  the  conviction  that  its 
penalties  are  not  exhausted  here. 

But  it  is  a  difficult  task.  The  greater  part  of 
our  work  in  this  direction  lies  in  keeping  the  posi- 
tive teaching  of  Jesus  on  the  subject  always  in 
mind.  Mr.  Beecher  used  to  say  that  he  always 
preached  with  a  background  of  judgment.  We 
must  faithfully  present  the  ''  whole  counsel  of 
God/'  and  trust  that  the  Spirit  will  use  it  to  con- 
vince men  of  their  needs. 

But  to  pour  forth,  as  some  do,  condemnations 
to  "  hell "  with  an  unction  that  seems  to  indicate 
that  they  enjoy  doing  so  not  only  does  no  good  to 
others  but  is  a  sure  sign  that  such  speakers  are 
in  great  danger  of  it  themselves.  No  good  man 
can  joke  about  it  nor  revel  in  it. 

Another  kind  of  fear  is  that  which  comes  from 
the  idea  that  "  judgments  "  come  upon  men  here 
when  they  do  wrong.  It  is  true  that  if  Jesus  has 
undertaken  to  "  present  his  people  without  spot 
or  wrinkle*'  he  will  do  so.  If  it  takes  sorrows 
and  disappointments  to  attain  the  result  they  will 
be  sent.  But  the  minister  is  not  wise  enough  to 
discriminate  between  "  judgments  "  and  "  chasten- 
ing."    His  appeals  must  be  general. 

Another  fear  is  that  which  arises  from  the 
dread  of  self-condemnation.  To  stand  before  the 
glass  and  look  ourselves  in  the  eye  and  know  that 


MOTIVES  137 

we  are  following  lower  ideals  than  we  might  is,  to 
most  of  us,  a  great  fear.  For  myself,  I  did  not 
have  any  fear  of  ''  hell "  or  of  temporal  "  judg- 
ments "  when  I  committed  myself  to  the  Christian 
life.  But  I  did  awake  to  the  fact  that  with  the 
best  of  Christian  influences  around  me  from  my 
youth,  and  the  full  blaze  of  knowledge  shining 
upon  me  from  the  Bible  and  the  pulpit  and  the 
Christian  people,  I  was  following  too  low  ideals — 
and  that  moved  me.  I  think  that  motive  is  more 
worthy  than  the  fears  of  which  I  have  spoken 
above. 

Gratitude.  Gratitude  is  a  sense  of  obligation  to 
make  return  for  blessings.  It  awakens  when  the 
mercies  of  God  have  been  shown  or  called  to 
remembrance.  Thus  Paul  wrote,  after  having 
shown  by  careful  argument  the  gracious  plan  of 
salvation,  "I  beseech  you,  therefore,  by  the 
mercies  of  God  (which  I  have  just  shown  you), 
present  your  bodies  living  sacrifices,  holy,  accept- 
able to  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service." 
(Rom.  12:1.)  The  Psalmist  understood  this 
when  he  wrote,  "  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and 
all  that  is  within  me  bless  his  holy  name;  bless 
the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  forget  not  all  his 
benefits;  who  forgiveth  all  thine  iniquities;  who 
healeth  all  thy  diseases;  who  crowneth  thee  with 
lovingkindness  and  tender  mercies."  The  Psalm- 
ist said,  "  What  shall  I  render  unto  the  Lord  for 
all  his  benefits  toward  me  ?  I  will  take  the  cup  of 


138       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

salvation  and  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord/* 
(Ps.  ii6:  13.)  It  awakens  this  motive  to  relate 
and  exalt  the  "  benefits  toward  us."  To  do  that 
is  a  most  worthy  appeal.  A  college  mate  of  mine 
was  the  son  of  a  most  worthy  woman,  who  became 
a  widow  when  my  friend  was  a  small  boy.  He 
was  brought  up  wisely  by  his  mother.  He  was 
industrious,  clean,  kind,  honest,  capable.  The 
neighbors  said,  "  Why,  he  is  as  good  as  any 
church  member.  Why  should  he  be  a  Chris- 
tian?" and  what  was  quite  different,  he  thought 
so  himself.  But  in  the  good  pleasure  of  him  who 
sent  his  spirit  to  show  us  truth  this  young  man 
who  thought  so  highly  of  himself  came  one  day 
to  see  himself  in  a  different  light.  He  said  to 
me,  "  I  saw  that  all  my  excellence  of  reputation 
was  due  to  Christ  whose  word  I  had  been  taught, 
whose  people  had  surrounded  me  with  holy  influ- 
ences; whose  saint,  my  mother,  had  taught  me  by 
precept  and  example ;  and  I  had  done  nothing  but 
receive  all  this  with  not  a  thrill  of  gratitude  to 
him;  and  I  seemed  to  myself  to  be  the  most 
unworthy  of  all  the  young  men  in  Lowell,  Mass." 
Gratitude  arose  in  him  and  moved  him  to  a  very 
consecrated  Christian  life.  This  motive  is  one 
that  exalts  a  man.  To  give  money  or  time  or 
effort  to  any  good  cause  from  that  motive  leaves 
a  residuum  in  the  character  of  rare  value. 

Self-respect    Whatever  others  may  think  of  us 
we  must  think  well  of  ourselves.    Every  man  has 


MOTIVES  139 

that  in  him,  and  to  show  him  that  any  actions  will 
give  him  just  ground  to  respect  himself  is  a  great 
and  worthy  appeal.  To  tell  men  in  a  dictatorial 
way  that  they  are  only  *'  unworthy  worms  of  the 
dirt  ";  that  they  are  "  born  in  sin  and  conceived  in 
iniquity/'  and  that  only  the  great  mercy  of  God 
can  afford  them  any  ground  of  hope, — while  they 
may  themselves  often  feel  that  to  be  their  case,  it 
is  never  good  nor  wise  for  others  in  an  appeal  for 
a  better  life  to  tell  them  so.  It  is  the  business  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  to  convict  of  sin.  He  will 
wound.  We  must  bind  up.  He  may  plough  the 
heart;  we  must  sow  the  seed  and  cultivate  it. 
Most  men  know  their  sins.  Many  do  not  know  the 
remedy.  John  wrote,  "  Beloved  now  are  we  the 
Sons  of  God  and  it  is  not  yet  made  manifest  what 
we  shall  be.  We  know  that  if  he  shall  be  mani- 
fested we  shall  be  like  him;  for  we  shall  see  him 
even  as  he  is."  And  Paul  said,  "  Walk  worthy  of 
your  calling."  In  school  no  good  teacher  allows 
a  pupil  to  think  he  is  belittled  by  his  teacher. 
Many  pupils  who  are  oppressed  at  home  by  pov- 
erty, or  unwise  parents,  have  been  quickened  into 
studious  scholars  by  teachers  who  had  the  wisdom 
to  appeal  to  the  self-respect.  This  appeal  is  almost 
wholly  lacking  in  some  of  our  pulpits.  It  is  fault- 
finding most  of  the  time.  One  hears  scolding  and 
pessimism.  The  minister  means  well  but  he  lacks 
the  pedagogical  tact  to  make  his  appeal  to  the 
motive  of  self-respect.    Jesus  taught,  not  that  we 


140       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

are  the  offscouring  of  the  world,  but  the  ''light 
of  the  world,"  set  up  on  a  candlestick  to  give 
light  unto  all  that  are  in  the  house.  Therefore, 
do  not  let  your  light  be  of  the  wrong  sort,  but 
of  the  sort  that  leads  men  to  glorify  God. 

The  Psalmist  said,  "  When  I  behold  the  heav- 
ens, the  work  of  thy  hands,  what  a  wondrous 
being  is  man  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him."  * 

Shame  to  fail  in  duty.  President  Wilson  gives 
us  an  illustration  of  this  in  his  communication  of 
July  12,  1 91 7.  Seeking  to  check  speculation  in 
food,  and  getting  rich  out  of  the  war  while  men 
were  giving  their  lives  to  help  Europe,  he  did 
not  scourge  the  public  as  though  he  dealt  with 
slaves.  He  did  not,  Kaiser  fashion,  assume  that 
he  and  God  jointly  owned  them.  He  did  not  call 
them  "my  people"  nor  Satan's  people;  but  ad- 
dressed them,  "  My  fellow  countrymen.  .  .  . 
"  In  these  days  when  we  are  sending  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  our  young  men  across  the  seas  to 
serve  a  great  cause,  no  true  man  who  stays  behind 
to  work  for  them  and  sustain  them  by  his  labor 
will  ask  himself  what  he  is  going  to  make  out  of 
that  labor.  ...  He  will  give  as  freely  and  with 
as  unstinted  sacrifice  as  they.  ...  I  take  it  for 
granted  that  those  who  argue  otherwise  do  not 
stop  to  think  what  that  means.  Do  they  mean 
that  you  must  be  paid,  must  be  bribed  to  make 

*Read  in  line  with  this  the  book,  "The  Passing  of  the 
Third  Floor  Back"  (J.  K.  Jerome),  and  "The  Gospel 
of  Good  Will"  (Pres.  W.  D.  Hyde). 


MOTIVES  141 

your  contribution — that  costs  you  neither  a  drop 
of  blood  nor  a  tear  when  the  whole  world  is  in 
travail?  .  .  .  Do  you  mean  that  you  will  exact 
a  price  and  drive  a  bargain  with  the  men  who  are 
enduring  the  agony  of  this  war  on  the  battle- 
field .  .  .  before  you  will  come  forward  and  do 
your  duty  and  give  some  part  of  your  life  .  .  . 
for  the  things  we  are  fighting  for?  .  .  .  You 
know,  and  I  know  what  response  you  will  make 
.    .    .  not  that  I  have  any  fear  as  to  the  result." 

Material  advantage.  It  is  not  wrong  to  teach 
men  the  importance  of  prosperity  in  business — 
but  to  promise  money  profit  for  the  exercise  of 
Christian  charity  is  to  belie  the  cause.  Jacob 
sought  to  dicker  with  God.  He  said,  "  If  you 
will  prosper  me  I  will  give  you  a  tithe.**  That 
is,  *'  If  you  give  me  a  dollar's  worth  of  prosperity 
I  will  give  you  ten  per  cent."  To  make  a  plea 
now  for  gifts  to  Christian  work  on  the  promise 
that  you  will  be  prospered  in  business  is  to 
Jacobize  men — from  which  good  Lord  deliver  us 
all.  The  cause  of  missions  and  of  religion  is 
worthy  a  better  plea.  Response  to  such  would 
only  leave  a  residuum  of  covetousness. 

But  I  need  not  continue.  It  would  prolong  the 
discussion  to  mention  love  of  country,  love  of 
the  church,  love  of  the  brethren,  desire  for 
heaven,  love  of  Christ.  The  great  principle  of 
control  is,  Motives  that  secure  desirable  results 
and  leave  a  residuum  of  good  in  the  character 


142        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

are  always  worthy,  all  others  are  not.  It  is  true 
that  the  prophet  Malachi  wrote,  "  Bring  ye  all 
the  tithes  into  the  storehouse,  that  there  may  be 
meat  in  my  house,  and  prove  me,  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  the  windows  of  heaven 
and  pour  you  out  a  blessing,  that  there  is  not 
room  enough  to  receive  it/'  (Mai.  3:10.)  But 
that  was  rather  as  a  test  of  their  faithfulness  than 
an  appeal  to  their  greed.  And  even  that  is  not 
without  the  inquiry  whether  the  tithing  system 
did  not  lie  at  the  root  of  the  selfish  covetousness 
that  has  marked  and  damaged  the  Jewish  race  ever 
since.  A  rich  man  once  told  me  that  tithing  made 
him  stingy.  He  was  always  figuring  how  much  he 
could  give  and  not  trench  on  his  own  nine-tenths. 
Usefulness.  This  appeals  to  those  who  have 
already  some  culture  in  the  Christian  life.  Moses 
asked  his  father-in-law  to  join  the  Israelites.  He 
said,  "  Come  with  us  and  we  will  do  you  good." 
But  Hobab  replied,  **  O  I  am  very  contented 
where  I  am."  Then  Moses  said,  "  We  need  you 
for  our  guide  in  the  wilderness."  "  Well,  then, 
I  will  go."  It  would  be  unwise  to  say  to  men 
that  the  cause  of  Christ  "needs"  them,  but  it 
touches  some  of  the  best  springs  of  action  to 
show  people  how  they  can  be  useful.  To  say  to 
a  young  man,  "  You  have  the  gift  of  leadership 
and  can  bring  others  with  you  " ;  or  to  a  woman, 
"  If  you  will  do  so  and  so  it  will  carry  this  move- 
ment to  success  ";  or  this  man  of  means,  "  If  you 


MOTIVES  143 

will  lead  off  this  debt  can  be  paid;  or  this  new 
activity  of  the  church  can  be  launched."  These 
and  many  similar  appeals  are  not  only  legitimate 
but  very  effective  with  the  better  sort  of  people. 

Authority.  Some  teachers  insist  that  an  appeal 
to  authority  is  not  a  worthy  one.  It  is  said  that 
the  integrity  of  our  own  personality  is  endangered 
when  we  say  to  men,  '*  You  are  under  obligation 
to  do  this  because  God  says  you  are  to  do  it.  It 
is  not  for  you  to  ask  why,  but  to  obey,  and  the 
scripture  is  quoted :  "  To  obey  is  better  than 
sacrifice  and  to  hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams." 
These  say :  "  That  only  is  truly  ethical  which  a 
man  does  because  his  own  mind  and  heart  so 
approve  it  that  he  acts  from  his  own  center.  His 
will  coalesces  with  the  divine  will  as  two  drops  of 
water  melt  into  one.  There  is  no  doubt  that  such 
harmony  of  will  existed  between  Jesus  and  his 
Father.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  does  not  so 
exist  between  us  and  the  Father, 

To  me  the  appeal  to  authority  of  God  as  a 
reason  why  we  should  do  any  act  is  the  first  and 
natural  appeal  to  make  to  those  who  are  immature 
in  knowledge  and  experience.  I  think  that  to 
obey  God  just  because  he  is  God  is  to  learn  the 
excellencies  of  his  ways  and  ultimately  come  to  do 
his  will  from  spontaneous  desire.  Ruskin  some- 
where said  that  we  learn  to  love  the  right  by 
doing  it,  and  until  we  do  love  it  we  are  not  in  a 
mature  ethical  state. 


XIII. 

Beginning  at  Moses  and  all  the  Prophets  he 
expounded  in  all  the  scriptures  the  things  con- 
cerning himself. — Luke  24:33. 

EXPOSITION 

npHE  Bible  is  the  great  source  of  knowledge 
-*•  and  instruction  in  the  Christian  religion. 
iWe  do  not  by  any  means  say  the  only  source. 
Nor  is  it  the  most  reliable  source  in  all  religious 
matters.  Nature  and  history  are  sources  that 
antedate  and  outrank  the  Bible  in  fundamental 
things.  There  was  longing  for  God  before  there 
were  any  altars  or  temples. 

"  The  groves  were  God's  first  temples.'*  There 
was  revelation,  and  faith  in  it,  long  before  any 
book  of  our  Bible  was  written.  Abraham  came 
out  from  Ur  guided,  we  do  not  know  how. 
Human  hearts  now  have  their  longings  and  their 
faith  where  there  is  no  Bible.  But  nevertheless 
the  Christian  faith  and  the  Christian  hope  grow 
in  the  soil  of  Bible  knowledge.  The  foundations 
precede  them,  but  the  building  is  from  teaching 
found  only  in  the  New  Testament.  There  is 
"  religion "  in  abundance  where  there  is  no 
"gospel,"  but  the  hearts  of  men  are  not  satisfied 
until  the  gospel  message  reaches  them. 
144 


EXPOSITION  145 

"  Exposition  "  is  bringing  to  men^s  view  what 
is  inside  of  that  book.  Since  the  Bible  is  the 
standard  by  which  our  teaching  is  measured,  and 
the  real  source  of  our  knowledge  of  the  distinc- 
tively Christian  truth,  it  is  of  first  importance  that 
the  contents  of  that  book  be  made  known  to  the 
people.  The  pastor's  privilege  and  duty  is  to 
search  for  its  doctrine  and  its  promises  and  its 
ideals;  and,  having  found  them,  to  bring  them  to 
the  people.  The  spies  were  sent  up  to  examine 
the  land  of  Canaan,  and  report  back  to  Moses  and 
Israel  their  discoveries,  so  that  the  people  might 
be  encouraged  to  face  the  journey  to  that  prom- 
ised and  longed-for  land.  They  brought  back 
specimens  of  the  fruit.  They  said,  "  It  is  a 
goodly  land:  it  has  many  and  strong  inhabitants 
but  we  shall  be  able  to  overcome  them.'* 

So  the  pastor  is  to  explore  the  chapters  of 
bibHcal  history  and  survey  the  blessings  promised 
to  the  faithful;  he  is  to  study  the  routes  of  life 
along  which  the  good  have  travelled,  and  bring  to 
his  people  not  only  the  story  of  the  country  but 
some  of  its  fruits.  To  do  that  is  what  is  meant 
by  "  exposition." 

The  scripture  thus  opened  is  the  great  source  of 
many  things.  Paul  said,  "  It  is  profitable  for 
teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruc- 
tion which  is  in  righteousness;  that  the  man  of 
God  may  be  complete,  furnished  completely  unto 
every  good  work."     (II  Tim.  3:  16.) 


im       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

In  educating  a  community  no  single  agency  is 
equal  in  value  to  a  sympathetic,  intelligent  unfold- 
ing of  the  scripture. 

A  great  danger.  1  have  said  in  another  place 
that  the  allegorical  interpretation  has  more  to  be 
said  for  it  and  more  against  it  than  can  well  be 
enumerated.  In  exposition  this  method  finds  its 
field.  The  idea  of  that  method  is  that  the  words, 
the  events,  the  persons  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
to  a  large  extent  the  same  in  the  New  Testament, 
carry  a  double  sense.  They  are  "  earthly  stories 
with  heavenly  meanings."  People  with  active  im- 
aginations see  almost  anything  in  the  scripture 
when  they  skillfully  use  that  sort  of  a  glass  to 
look  through.  And  like  a  kaleidoscope  the  mean- 
ing changes  every  time  the  glass  passes  to  a  new 
beholder. 

As  one  has  said,  "  The  Bible  has  been  treated 
as  a  magazine  of  curious  and  mystical  analogies; 
as  a  work  on  geology,  anticipating  the  labors  of 
Hitchcock  and  Dana  and  Agassiz;  as  a  dictionary 
of  moral  precepts,  all  of  which  were  of  equal  and 
uniform  validity;  as  a  sort  of  a  divine  puzzle, 
whose  parts  could  be  put  together  to  spell  out 
some  theurgic  symbol  of  salvation.  Lyric  meta- 
phors have  been  made  over  into  studies  in  science. 
Inspiring  poems  have  been  treated  as  prosaic 
biographies.  Parables  and  visions  have  been 
boiled  down  into  accounts  of  historical  occur- 
rences.   Figures  and  allusions  to  seven  horns  and 


EXPOSITION  147 

seven  eyes  have  been  made  to  refer  to  events  like 
an  eclipse  of  the  sun  in  Germany,  or  the  election 
of  a  President  in  the  United  States.  The  fusion 
of  two  metals  in  the  temple  has  taught  the  hu- 
manity and  divinity  of  Christ.  The  five  stones  in 
David's  sling  have  been  made  to  spell  J-E  S^U-S. 
A  scarlet  cloth  on  the  walls  of  Jericho  has  been  a 
prophecy  of  the  blood  of  the  New  Covenant. 
Coverings  of  the  tabernacle  have  taught  the  doc- 
trine of  imputed  righteousness.  Riddles,  conun- 
drums, recondite  and  strained  interpretations  have 
been  found  on  all  its  pages.  Like  a  child's  box 
of  letters,  it  has  furnished  amusement  to  re- 
nowned scholars  who  have  tried  to  see  how  much 
they  could  "  spell  out  *'  by  means  of  its  verses."  * 

On  the  other  hand,  what  a  wonderful  adapta- 
tion the  book  has  for  such  uses.  The  New  Testa- 
ment itself  has  some  passages  that  suggest  the  alle- 
gorical character  of  parts  of  the  Old  Testament, 
so  that  in  spite  of  the  fanciful  things  said  by  some 
to  be  taught  by  it,  we  cannot  say  it  is  all  fancy. 

Whatever  the  preacher  may  do  with  texts,  the 
teacher  J  the  true  pastor,  will  want  to  avoid  fancies, 
but  he  will  also  want  to  utilize  the  book.  There 
are  several  principles  to  guide  us.  First,  the 
purpose  of  the  writer  or  speaker  of  any  passage 
must  he  found.  For  example,  when  the  Psalmist 
wrote  his  hymn — say  the  105th  Psalm — was  he 
teaching  the  details  of  history?  Certainly  not. 
*  Rev.  George  H.  Ferris,  Philadelphia. 


148       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

He  was  showing  the  guidance  that  God  had  given 
to  Israel.  He  was  concerned  with  making  Israel 
know  that  God  was  their  God,  and  that  he  wanted 
them  to  "  keep  his  laws."  He  wrote  not  to  pre- 
serve history  but  to  promote  holiness. 

The  author  of  the  "  Gospel  of  Matthew  "  was 
not  writing  a  life  of  Christ,  nor  the  writer  of  Acts 
a  life  of  Peter  or  of  Paul.  The  first  was  giving 
a  summary  of  Jesus'  teaching  and  the  saving 
deeds  of  his  life.  The  other  was  showing  how 
the  gospel  spread  over  the  world,  and  how  its 
simple  message  to  some  Jewish  peasants  was  ex- 
panded to  take  in  the  philosophers  of  Athens,  and 
the  politicians  of  Rome,  and  the  rest  of  the  world. 
Paul's  letters  were  not  written  primarily  for  the 
instruction  of  Americans  but  for  the  comfort  and 
help  of  his  own  generation. 

If  you  are  to  teach  thoughtful  people  you  must 
have  that  conception  underneath  all  your  exposi- 
tion. Other  folks  have  found  that  out,  and  you 
must  accept  that  point  of  view. 

The  second  principle  is:  Seek  the  purpose  of 
those  who  put  these  particular  hooks  of  the  Bible 
into  the  collection  of  sacred  hooks. 

Why,  for  example,  are  Paul's  letters  written  to 
some  one  else  put  in  here?  Why,  out  of  all  the 
things  that  Jesus  did,  were  these  preserved?  In 
answer  to  these  questions  we  may  say  that  the 
dominating  purpose  was  to  show  us  the  path  of 
life  and  help  us  walk  in  it,  by  showing  us  the 


EXPOSITION  149 

inner  life  of  those  who  did  walk  in  it  and  of  those 
who  did  not  walk  in  it.  It  was  not  to  make  us 
know  the  facts  of  David's  life  that  his  story  was 
told  so  much  as  to  show  us  the  spirit  he  had.  It 
was  not  to  tell  us  how  bad  a  woman  Jezebel  was — 
we  have  bad  women  now — but  to  show  us  how 
God  defeated  her.  The  story  of  Israel's  journey 
through  the  wilderness  has  no  value  in  its  de- 
tails— no  one  goes  over  that  route  now — but  it 
shows  how  God  guides  us  through  a  longer  wil- 
derness to  a  better  Canaan.  Therefore,  in  teach- 
ing truth  from  this  book,  we  are  to  look  for  the 
moral  situation  back  of  the  events  and  set  that 
forth.  The  Twenty-third  Psalm  shows  how  a 
godly  man  feels  toward  his  God.  The  story  of 
Peter's  denial  shows  how  a  sensitive  spirit  may 
flinch  at  the  reproach  of  men,  and  yet  under  the 
love  of  Christ  may  recover  great  courage.  The 
story  of  Lazarus  is  not  important  in  its  details. 
Whether  he  died  again  or  what  he  said  about  his 
four  days  in  the  grave  has  no  spiritual  value,  but 
it  shows  how  Jesus  can  call  back  our  **  buried 
selves."    How 


Down  in  the  human  heart, 
Crushed  by  the  tempter. 

Feelings  lie  buried 
That  grace  can  restore." 


The  story  of  Paul's  conversion  is  not  important 
except  that  it  gives  us  the  key  to  all  Christian 


150       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

life.  Paul  said,  "  I  was  not  disobedient  to  the 
heavenly  vision."  All  the  rest  followed  naturally. 
It  does  not  matter  whether  the  Prodigal  Son  went 
to  Egypt  or  Rome  in  his  wanderings;  but  it  is 
of  great  value  to  know  that  his  father  loved  him 
and  forgave  him;  and  that  Jesus  made  that  father 
the  miniature  of  Our  Father  in  Heaven.  The 
mysterious  figures  that  act  in  the  drama  of  The 
Revelation  are  forever  useless  to  us,  but  the  story 
of  battle  between  Christ's  kingdom  and  its  ene- 
mies, followed  by  victory  and  peace — not  "  peace 
without  victory  " — is  a  great  comfort  to  us  all. 
So  through  all  the  book  the  faith,  the  courage,  the 
patience  of  men  are  the  elements  of  value  for  the 
teaching  of  which  the  books  have  been  exalted 
and  preserved. 

The  third  principle  is :  We  must  interpret  by  the 
same  rules  as  any  other  writing  dealing  with  the 
same  subjects.  There  is  no  "  sacred  rhetoric " 
any  more  than  there  is  sacred  arithmetic.  The 
rules  of  rhetoric  are  the  same  whether  we  read  a 
poem  by  Milton  or  David.  The  rules  of  logic  are 
the  same  whether  we  follow  Paul  in  Romans  or 
Socrates.  This  is  too  often  ignored  or  forgotten. 
Some  of  the  Bible  is  poetry  and  must  be  read  as 
such,  some  of  it  is  commandment  and  must  be 
obeyed  as  such. 

To  teach  as  the  language  of  prophecy  what  was 
only  the  language  of  desire  or  faith  is  to  mis- 
interpret the  word.     Foresight  is  very  different 


EXPOSITION  151 

from  faith.  When  Isaiah  wrote  Chapter  2 :  3-4, 
he  was  not  seeing  the  future;  he  was  describing 
the  sure  result  that  would  follow  when  men 
should  go  up  to  the  house  of  the  Lord  to  learn 
his  ways  and  be  willing  to  walk  in  his  paths. 
They  have  not  all  done  this  yet;  otherwise  we 
should  not  have  the  war  which  grieves  the  heart 
of  all  but  the  German  '*  war  lords  "  who  make  a 
living  by  it.  All  this  requires  familiarity  with  the 
historical  situation  and  with  the  religious  needs  of 
that  time.  It  will  be  no  small  part  of  preparation 
for  exposition  to  be  able  to  sketch  the  situation 
morally  and  historically  in  swift  clear  way,  so  that 
you  may  introduce  the  audience  to  the  circum- 
stances that  give  character  to  the  passage.  There 
are  some  passages  that  are  like  diamonds,  beauti- 
ful in  themselves.  But  many  more  that  depend 
upon  their  setting. 

You  can  teach  and  educate  a  people  in  more 
ways  and  on  more  subjects  and  with  greater 
profit  to  all  by  expositions  of  Bible  passages  than 
by  any  other  method.  It  will  require  study  but  it 
will  pay  for  the  study.  There  are  occasions  when 
you  will  need  to  discuss  themes  that  belong  to  the 
civil  conditions  of  your  people;  but  this  book  con- 
tains even  for  such  themes  the  richest  mines  of 
the  truth  needed  for  such  occasions. 

The  story  of  Boaz  and  his  laborers  has  its  les- 
son for  the  employer. 

The  story  of  Nebuchadnezzar  tells  rulers  not  to 


162        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

be  lifted  up  in  their  successes.  The  story  in 
II  Kings  12:  4-12  tells  us  the  unwisdom  of  com- 
mitting great  works  to  officials  without  oversight 
and  reports  of  their  stewardship.  The  rebellion 
against  Solomon  because  of  his  severity  and  ex- 
travagancies recalls  the  saying  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
"You  cannot  fool  all  the  people  all  the  time." 
Indignation  may  be  dammed  up  for  a  time,  but  it 
will  accumulate  to  the  overthrow  of  the  wicked. 
We  are  seeing  now  how  at  last — at  last,  after  gen- 
erations of  patient  delay — the  rum-seller  class  is 
to  be  overthrown  as  thoroughly  as  it  has  been  for 
a  long  time  despised. 

A  broad  study  of  the  sociology  of  the  biblical 
history  gives  us  a  view  of  underlying  principles 
that  must  come  sooner  or  later  into  control  of  our 
community  life.  These  principles  had  only  fitful 
expression  in  that  old-time  history,  but  they  are 
there.  The  prophecies  of  Amos  and  Isaiah  and 
Malachi  are  rich  in  warnings  against  the  evils  of 
trusts  that  are  selfish,  and  of  ecclesiastical  domi- 
nance and  religious  indifference.  One  cannot 
read  those  prophecies  without  being  impressed 
with  the  vital  relation  between  ethical  conduct  in 
social  affairs  and  religious  healthfulness.  Cere- 
monialism has  no  honor  before  the  denunciations 
of  those  men  of  God. 


XIV. 

Exhort  with  all  longsuffering  and  doctrine. 
II  Tim.  4:  2. 

/  cease  not  to  pray  that  ye  may  know  what  is 
the  hope  of  his  calling;  what  the  riches  of  the 
glory  of  his  inheritance  in  the  Saints,  and 
what  the  exceeding  greatness  of  his  power 
toward  us. — Eph.  i  :  18,  19. 

DOCTRINAL  TEACHING 

NO  full-orbed  education  can  be  secured  with- 
out doctrinal  knowledge.  Paul  in  his 
prayers  for  the  Ephesians  asked  that  they  might 
come  to  know  the  "  hope  of  their  calling,"  the 
"  glory  of  their  inheritance,"  and  the  "  power  of 
God  toward  them."  Those  were  the  great  doc- 
trines or  teachings.  Doctrines  are  not  specula- 
tions of  the  philosophic  minds,  nor  the  fancies  of 
the  imaginative,  nor  the  discussions  of  petty  de- 
nominational matters.  Doctrines  are  the  orderly 
statement  of  facts.  They  are  lists  of  what  God 
has  done,  is  doing,  and  proposes  to  do  for  those 
who  commit  themselves  to  his  care  and  guidance. 
Doctrines  describe  the  glorious  privileges  and  pos- 
sibilities that  lie  before  the  Christian  as  a  country 
to  be  possessed — a  fair  Canaan  "  where  their  pos- 
sessions lie."  Doctrine  teaches  what  resources 
of  divine  help  we  have  in  our  journey  to  those 

153 


154       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

possessions.  The  prayer  of  Paul  was  comprehen- 
sive and  orderly.  When  he  asked  that  the  Ephe- 
sians  might  know  the  hope,  the  glory,  and  the 
power,  he  covered  all  the  doctrinal  field. 

All  men  have  ""  doctrine  "  of  some  sort.  If  you 
ask  any  thoughtful  Christian  why  he  faces  the 
world  so  bravely  and  meets  trouble  so  trium- 
phantly, he  will  tell  you  it  is  because  of  the  antici- 
pation of  "things  to  come."  He  is  "saved  by 
hope  "  and  "  hope  that  is  seen  is  not  hope.  But 
if  we  hope  for  that  which  is  not  seen,  then  do 
we  with  patience  wait  for  it.*' 

If  you  ask  him  why  he  loves  the  company  of 
the  Christian  people  more  than  others,  and  why  he 
is  willing,  if  need  be,  to  "  suffer  affliction  with  the 
people  of  God,'*  he  replies  that  the  glory  of  the 
church,  which  is  the  Lord's  "  inheritance,"  is 
greater  to  him  than  "  all  the  treasures  of  Egypt." 
And  if  you  tell  him  he  will  not  be  able  to  main- 
tain himself  in  the  Christian  life,  but  that  his 
own  moral  weakness  will  prevent  his  final  victory, 
he  will  tell  you  that  the  power  of  God  is  his 
re-enforcement,  and  "  he  who  has  begun  a  good 
work  in  him  will  carry  it  on  until  the  day  of 
Jesus  Christ." 

All  these  confidences  which  give  him  strength 
and  gladness  are  the  results  of  his  doctrine  of 
Christ.  That  is,  knowing  the  facts  about  God's 
interest  in  him  and  readiness  to  help  him,  he  is 
buoyed  up  by  these  great  truths,  taught  in  the 


DOCTRINAL  TEACHING  155 

Bible  progressively  from  the  simple  faith  of  Abel 
and  Abraham  on  to  the  maturer  knowledge  given 
us  in  the  New  Testament. 

This  fact  if  well  considered  will  help  you  to 
get  past  the  stumbling  blocks  that  acrimonious 
discussions  of  mysterious  or  unimportant  things 
have  put  in  the  path.  It  will  strip  doctrinal 
preaching  of  the  disfiguring  and  sometimes  poi- 
sonous vines  that  have  overrun  it,  and  reveal  to 
you  the  unsuspected  beauty  of  the  architecture. 
Doctrine  will  be  to  your  people  like  the  rains  of 
summer  which,  in  cold  climates,  soak  into  the 
deep  ground  and  supply  the  springs  in  winter 
when  rains  do  not  come.  These  doctrinal  instruc- 
tions must  be  fundamental.  Paul's  prayer  well 
indicates  the  general  divisions;  namely,  what 
things  has  the  Christian  a  right  to  hope  for? 
What  are  the  glories  that  belong  to  the  church? 
What  help  is  available  in  the  conflict  with  sin  and 
death?  You  will  find  your  own  spirit  will  be 
refreshed  by  the  search  for  the  reply  to  these  ques- 
tions, and  as  you  tell  to  others  what  you  have 
found  you  will  be  entrenching  them  in  their 
faith. 

How  shall  we  proceed?  If  you  can  make  or 
buy  a  true  doctrinal  catechism  for  your  families 
and  Sunday  School  teachers  to  use  do  so.  It  will 
lay  the  "bottom  courses"  of  their  future  faith 
deep  and  solid. 

Do  not  get  one  that  deals  with  the  "secret 


156       PEDAGOGY  FOR  lillNISTERS 

decrees "  of  God.  If  they  are  *'  secret  '*  it  is 
ill-mannered  as  well  as  useless  to  pry  into 
them. 

Do  not  get  one  that  attempts  to  explain  all  the 
ways  of  God.  For  Jesus  said  some  of  the  great 
things  are  like  the  wind  that  bloweth.  We  can- 
not tell  whence  they  come,  nor  whither  they  go. 
We  know  them  by  their  results. 

Get  one  that  classifies  the  teachings  of  the 
book  in  orderly  fashion  and  confines  itself  to 
what  is  capable  of  being  wrought  into  our  daily 
life,  such  as  will  promote  **  love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  meekness,  tem- 
perance, faith." 

Have  a  system  in  your  work.  The  "  Christian 
year  "  gives  a  good  framework.  This  covers  the 
ground  of  Jesus'  life,  work,  and  teachings.  I 
have  followed  that  some  years  without  any  an- 
nouncements to  the  congregation.  This  guards 
against  keeping  in  a  doctrinal  rut. 

A  friend  of  mine  tells  me  he  has  been  follow- 
ing for  several  months  the  theme,  "  What  Christ 
is  to  the  world."  He  has  had  sermons  on  Christ's 
value  to  the  sinful,  and  to  the  struggling,  and  to 
governments,  and  to  literature,  and  to  ethical  cul- 
ture, and  to  parents,  and  to  the  dying.  In  this 
way  his  congregation  must  have  unconsciously 
been  enriched  by  large  veins  of  Christ,  and  that 
is  always  the  fertilization  of  the  soil  in  which  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit  grow. 


DOCTRINAL  TEACHING  157 

Once  in  my  early  ministry,  while  I  was  study- 
ing theology  for  myself  apart  from  the  seminary 
training,  I  followed  the  line  followed  in  the  book 
I  was  trying  to  master.  I  have  reason  to  think 
that  those  sermons  given  forty  years  ago  are 
bearing  fruit  in  that  community  now.  A  great 
doctrinal  truth  once  implanted  never  exhausts  its 
influence  on  the  life. 

But  especially  fill  yourself  with  contemplation 
of  large  themes.  To  become  a  mere  picker-out  of 
details  is  not  inspiring.  You  will  have  some  folk 
that  will  want  you  to  give  them  codes  to  live  by 
instead  of  principles.  They  will  want  you  to  tell 
them  how  to  regulate  their  family  matters  and 
their  family  devotions  instead  of  seeking  Christ's 
idea.  They  do  not  want  to  think,  or  perhaps  they 
do  not  know  how  to  do  so.  At  any  rate  they 
want  you  to  think  for  them.  Sometimes  you  will 
need  to  do  so  but  as  far  as  possible  keep  to  large 
themes.  My  college  president  used  to  say  to  us, 
"  Do  not  have  a  small  study,  it  will  cramp  your 
thought."  We  have  all  had  the  experience  of 
being  cramped  in  thought,  perplexed  about  some 
question  of  duty,  and  then  we  took  up  a  book  of 
large  things,  like  Paul's  letter  to  the  Ephesians, 
and  it  took  us  up  into  the  mountains  from  which 
we  could  get  our  bearings  and  untangle  our  minds 
from  the  devious  ways  through  the  lowlands  of 
our  thinking. 

Paul,   before  he  ventured   to  mention  details 


158       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

of  duty,  took  his  readers  up  into  the  moun- 
tains. For  example,  in  Ephesians  he  has  given 
us  the  inventory  of  the  Christian's  wealth  in 
chapter  i :  1-14.  Then  he  has  told  them  of  the 
"  exceeding  greatness  of  his  power  toward  us,** 
in  that  he  raised  Christ  from  the  dead  (i:  19). 
Then  he  reminded  them  how  when  they  were 
"dead"  Christ  had  "quickened  them"  (2:5), 
and  that  now  they  were  all  "  builded  together  for 
an  habitation  of  God"  (2:22),  Then,  and  not 
until  then,  he  turns  to  details,  "Therefore,  I 
beseech  you  to  walk  worthy  of  the  vocation  where- 
with ye  are  called"  (4:  i). 

In  Galatians  he  tells  them  how  he  who  had 
all  there  is  in  family  birth  and  in  ceremonial 
excellence  was  blind  to  the  glory  of  Jesus  (i :  13). 
But  God  revealed  his  son  in  him  (1:16)  and 
taught  him  that  the  way  of  life  is  never  closed 
to  people  of  faith,  but  that  like  Abraham  we  "  all 
are  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus'* 
(3:26)  and  are  redeemed  from  the  bondage  of 
ceremony.  Then,  and  not  until  then,  he  says, 
''  Therefore  stand  fast  in  the  liberty  wherewith 
Christ  has  set  us  free**  (5:1).  Thus  he  goes 
on  to  tell  us  about  the  "  fruit  of  the  spirit  '* 
(5:22). 

So  the  great  preachers  whose  work  has  shaped 
the  current  of  thought  and  life  in  great  com- 
munities have  been  those  whose  doctrinal  teach- 
ing has  been  large  and  high  and  commanding. 


DOCTRINAL  TEACHING  159 

"  Go  thou  and  do  likewise." 

This  at  once  raises  the  questions,  What  doc- 
trines shall  we  teach?  It  is  not  my  purpose  here 
to  discuss  disputed  subjects.  Nor  to  prescribe  a 
set  of  doctrines  for  any  one.  What  I  want  to 
impress  on  every  one  is  that  he  have  some  well- 
digested  system  of  doctrines  which  he  has  veri- 
fied, to  some  extent  at  least,  in  his  own  experience, 
or  that  are  verifiable  in  experience;  doctrines 
that  have  a  real  worth  in  making  men  better 
men;  and  that  he  teach  these  with  great  care 
and  ardor.  Personally — and  I  may  not  be  wise 
in  this — there  is  no  value  in  discussing  the  time 
when  Christ  is  to  return  or  the  condition  of  the 
world  when  he  comes.  Either  view  can  be 
made  to  appear  correct  by  manipulation  of  the 
scripture.  The  earliest  Christians  were  not  only 
ignorant  about  it  but  some  of  them  were  in 
error.  Paul  himself  did  not  make  it  so  evident 
that  good  men  can  agree  concerning  his  view. 
What  we  are  sure  of  is  that  we  are  to  teach  men 
everywhere  to  commit  themselves  to  Christ,  to 
do  his  will,  to  love  their  fellow  men,  and  God 
supremely.  Of  these  there  is  no  question.  I 
should  leave  the  other  themes  out  of  the  doc- 
trinal scheme  for  general  instruction.  Even  what 
are  called  denominational  discussions  profit  but 
little  and  convert  few.  There  are  times  when 
such  should  be  taught  to  the  people  but  never 
controversially.    But  as  I  have  said  this  may  be 


160       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

due  only  to  my  personal  lack  of  interest  in  such 
semi-speculative  matters. 

When  men  asked  Jesus  whether  few  are  to  be 
saved  he  replied,  Strive  to  enter  the  narrow  gate. 
When  people  were  disturbed  about  the  time  of 
Jesus'  return,  Paul  said,  Be  not  disturbed  about  it 
for  it  will  come  without  warning.  And  Jesus 
himself  said  he  did  not  know;  but  that  only  his 
Father  knows.  Just  how  the  death  of  Jesus 
affected  things  at  the  upper  end  of  God's  ladder 
of  salvation  no  one  knows.  We  only  know  that, 
as  Jacob  knew  the  ladder  he  saw  had  God  at  the 
upper  end,  so  the  work  of  Jesus  met  all  the 
requirement,  and  now  the  way  is  open  for  help 
and  salvation  to  every  one  that  will  believe  on 
him. 

The  atonement  is  now  and  always  has  been  a 
mysterious  fact.  The  substitutionary  view  was 
preached  for  centuries  with  great  results  for  good. 
The  moral  influence  view  has  been  accepted  by 
thousands  of  sincere  and  self-sacrificing  men. 
Some  of  the  best  culture  of  the  age  has  been  influ- 
enced by  such  teachers.  It  would  be  a  grievous 
error  to  deny  to  either  set  of  teachers  their  place 
in  the  Christian  fold  or  the  Christian  ministry. 
But  one  must  have  his  own  conviction  and  must 
preach,  then,  with  positiveness.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary that  he  be  uncharitable  or  controversial  in 
his  presentation.  Every  one  must  give  account  of 
himself,  and  that  account  not  to  men  but  to  God. 


XV. 

CREEDS  AND  LITURGIES 

IN  former  chapters  we  have  noticed  how  the 
great  agency  for  moving  the  will  of  men  is 
a  knowledge  of  the  truth.  The  didatic  sermon, 
however,  does  not  go  directly  to  the  audience 
chamber  of  the  soul  but  must  go  around  by  way 
of  the  emotional  entrance.  But  when  Truth  is 
clearly  seen  it  moves  the  deepest  emotions,  and 
holds  its  influence  longer  than  any  other  agency. 
Once  convince  a  man  of  a  great  truth  that  affects 
his  life  for  the  better  and  you  have  "  stirred  a 
fountain  whose  waters  never  more  will  rest."  For 
such  a  man  the  helm  is  lashed  so  that  no  storms 
can  wrench  it  from  its  place.  The  course  is  set 
not  by  the  compass  of  immediate  desire,  that  may 
be  deflected  by  passing  temptations,  but  by  the 
stars  of  heaven.  In  this  chapter  I  wish  to  speak 
of  Creeds  and  Liturgies  in  their  relation  to  teach- 
ing of  the  truth.  At  the  outset  we  must  clear 
up  the  definition  of  these  words  "  creed "  and 
"  liturgy." 

By  "  creed ''  we  mean  the  formal  statement  of 
fundamental  religious  truth.  We  do  not  mean 
something  that  by  believing  it  or  assenting  to  it, 
a  man  becomes  a  member  of  the  kingdom  of 

161 


162       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

heaven,  a  sort  of  password  that  admits  him  with- 
out further  inquiry  to  the  company  of  the  "  elect." 
It  is  only  a  statement  of  what  we  think  is  the 
truth.    An  opening  up  to  the  public  of  our  inner 
convictions,  both  for  their  good  and  for  the  con- 
tinual correction  of  our  own  faith.    In  the  early 
centuries — between  the  third  and  the  sixteenth — 
the  dominant  church  taught,  and  probably  most 
people  believed,  that  there  was  a  mystical  power 
in  the  sacraments  by  which  those  who  received 
them  became  children  of  God  and  thus  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.     But  that  was  very  defi- 
cient both  in  theory  and  results.     The  Reforma- 
tion, while  keeping  much  of  the  sacramental  idea, 
gave   an  important  emphasis  to   the   intellectual 
requirements.     The  knowledge  of  the  truth  and 
acceptance  of  it  was  made  the  more  important 
thing.    This  placed  great  value  upon  the  careful 
statement  of  the  truth.    For  if  a  man  does  really 
accept  any  great  truth — he   is,   therefore,   com- 
pelled by  his  own  thinking  processes  to  accept  the 
necessary  inferences  from  it.     For  example,  if  a 
man  is  thoroughly  convinced  that  Paul  was  an 
inspired,  authoritative  teacher,  he  must  feel  bound 
by  all  that  Paul  taught.    If  a  man  really  .believes 
that  God  orders  all  things  from  the  beginning  he 
cannot,  if  he  would,  escape  the  conclusions  that 
Calvin  drew  from  that  great  promise.     Thus  the 
fundamental  statements  must  be  carefully  drawn, 
or  erroneous  inferences  will  be  made.    But  it  soon 


CREEDS  AND  LITURGIES  163 

became  evident  that  a  verbal  assent  was  inade- 
quate. Many  who  assented  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
cross  in  the  creed  were  strangers  to  the  cross  in 
their  lives.  Men  who  swore  to  the  creed  would 
swear  at  everything  else.  Like  those  Jews  to 
whom  Paul  wrote,  "  The  very  name  of  Christ  was 
blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles  because  of  them.'* 
They  said  the  ''  Credo  "  and  lived  the  ''  didholor 
But  by  "  creed "  we  mean  the  statements,  for 
pedagogical  reasons  and  uses  only,  of  what  we 
think  are  fundamental  and  commonly  accepted 
truths. 

Liturgy.  Many  people  who  have  not  given  the 
matter  much  thought  and  have  not  been  used  to 
its  practical  meaning  confound  "  liturgy "  with 
"  rite  "  or  "  canon."  This  confounds  the  subject. 
By  "  liturgy "  we  mean  an  established  order  of 
services  in  public  worships  including  prayers, 
hymns,  scripture  readings.  Among  the  non- 
liturgical  people  they  are  rather  loosely  called, 
**  order  of  services "  or  "  preliminaries.**  For 
us — as  I  write  to  the  non-liturgical  pastors 
chiefly — liturgical  services  are  rather  underesti- 
mated. We  have  them.  They  are  very  solidly 
established — not  by  ecclesiastical  authority,  but 
by  custom  of  long  standing,  widely  followed. 

We  have  an  "  Order  of  Service  '*  chiefly  be- 
cause congregations  do  not  like  surprises.  They 
dislike  to  sing  where  they  are  expecting  to  listen. 
But  the  pedagogical  value  is  too  important  to  be 


164       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

thus  underestimated.  Liturgies  for  educational 
purposes  are  no  modern  invention.  The  great  pur- 
pose of  the  Jewish  tabernacle  was  to  teach.  It 
stood  in  the  center  of  the  camp,  to  show  that 
Jehovah  was  among  them,  and  they  were  to  guard 
his  shrine.  Chosen  representatives  of  the  people 
could  approach  Jehovah  in  worship;  but  the  wash- 
ings and  the  white  garments  and  the  incense  all 
told  the  simplest  mind  that  those  who  came  to 
God  must  have  clean  hands  and  pure  hearts. 
Thus  the  fundamental  facts  were  daily  taught 
through  the  senses  of  sight  and  sound.  Later  the 
temple  magnified  this  feature.  So  that  when  the 
queen  of  Sheba  came  to  visit  King  Solomon  and 
saw  the  liturgy  she  said,  "  Blessed  are  thou,  and 
blessed  be  thy  God."  The  Psalms  were  used  as 
a  part  of  the  liturgy.  They  were  sung  by  the 
congregation  and  by  choirs.  They  praised  and 
prayed;  they  confessed  and  they  consecrated  in 
these  psalms.  One  who  is  familiar  with  them 
now  can  find  most  apt  expression  for  nearly  all 
religious  exercises  and  hopes,  except  those  im- 
mediately dependent  upon  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus.  The  churches'  history  was  drilled  into  all 
the  nation  by  the  historical  psalms  like  the 
104-5-6.  They  all  knew  it  as  Boston  knows  about 
Bunker  Hill  or  Philadelphia  about  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  I  can  but  think  that  we 
of  the  more  congregational  habit  might  gain  in 
educational  power  if  we  would  get  together  and 


CREEDS  AND  LITURGIES  165 

draw  upon  the  combined  wisdom  of  our  laymen 
and  ministers  to  provide  a  liturgy — not  to  be 
imposed  upon  any  church  but  to  be  available 
voluntarily  for  all.  I  believe  it  would  so  com- 
mend itself  to  the  good  sense  and  the  heart  needs 
that  it  would  soon  become  quite  general.  It 
would  represent  thus  the  need  of  all,  rather  than 
the  notions  of  one,  and  would  help  toward  the 
ultimate  union  of  Christians.  But  whether  this 
be  done  or  not,  the  "order  of  services"  sur- 
renders its  chief  value  if  it  is  not  made  to  teach 
with  elegant  repetition  the  great  facts  on  which 
our  common  faith  rests,  and  to  furnish  suitable 
forms  of  expression  for  our  common  approaches 
to  God. 

The  value  of  common  elements  in  the  prayer 
and  praise  is  seen  not  only  in  the  use  of  hymns 
for  the  congregation  but  in  the  "  responsive  read- 
ings," and  in  the  united  utterance  of  the  "  Lord's 
Prayer."  I  can  but  think  the  desire  for  these  is 
very  poorly  met  in  all  churches  today.  The  Epis- 
copal service  was  made  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. Some  of  its  prayers  are  not  in  harmony 
with  our  thoughts  nor  suitable  to  our  needs. 
There  is  an  element  of  cringing  fear  of  God  in 
parts  of  it,  and  a  very  great  lack  of  interest  in 
specific  missionary  objects  in  others.  We  of  this 
day  give  the  cause  of  missions  and  education  and 
Sunday  Schools  and  Evangelism  and  social  service 
such  large  place  in  our  prayers  that  the  Prayer 


166        PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

Book  is  very  inadequate  indeed.  The  new  Pres- 
byterian liturgy  has  prayers  much  more  up-to- 
date.  But  one  feels  that  while  in  substance  they 
are  adequate  they  are  rather  more  rhetorical  than 
the  "  common  prayer  "  should  be. 

Probably  one  difficulty  in  securing  any  new 
liturgy  grows  out  of  the  notion  that  the  "  inspired 
scriptures  "  are  the  only  safe  source  of  phrases  in 
tvhich  to  approach  our  Father  in  heaven.  With- 
out wishing  to  impeach  in  the  least  the  "  reputa- 
tion ''  of  the  Bible,  I  think  there  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  it  was  intended  for  our  use  in  pub- 
lic worship.  Men  of  today  are  as  well  able  to 
express  their  own  prayers  or  praises  as  they  are 
to  select  phrases  from  the  Bible  and  make  them 
into  a  sort  of  mosaic  that  has  for  its  recommenda- 
tion the  fact  that  its  material  is  all  taken  from  the 
verses  of  ancient  writings  as  the  huts  of  natives 
are  built  from  the  stones  of  ancient  Rome.  There 
is,  so  far  as  I  know,  no  evidence  that  Jehovah  or 
Jesus  is  particular  to  be  addressed  in  the  English 
language  of  1611.  And  certainly  David  was  not 
writing  his  psalms  with  the  idea  that  they  would 
fit  our  need.  If  it  were  not  done  with  perfectly 
serious  and  reverent  intent  it  would  seem  to  be 
a  most  foolish  exercise  to  read  a  psalm  that  has 
no  connection  with  our  needs;  and  then  make  it 
doubly  empty  by  reading  it  responsively.  There 
can  be  no  educational  value  in  such  reading  and 
certainly  there  is  no  worship  in  it. 


CREEDS  AND  LITURGIES  167 

The  value  of  a  creed  in  the  liturgy.  When  we 
seek  for  some  statement  that  is  common  to  the 
great  majority  of  the  congregation  the  task  is 
more  complex.  If  we  have  one  it  has  great  value. 
To  repeat  it  in  unison  many  Sundays  in  a  year 
fixes  it  in  the  minds  of  the  young  and  refreshens 
it  in  the  minds  of  others.  It  ought  in  these  days 
to  be  possible  to  agree  on  one.  One  that  has  been 
used  with  satisfaction  is  here  given: 

"We  believe  in  the  goodness  of  God  Our 
Father,  maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  in  whose 
moral  image  we  are  made. 

"  And  in  Jesus  Christ,  his  only  Son,  who  in  our 
form  and  nature  truly  lived  and  taught  among 
men  the  things  of  God;  who  died  for  our  sins, 
and  was  buried;  who  was  raised  from  the  dead 
by  the  power  of  God;  who  is  now  exalted  as  Head 
over  the  church,  and  the  One  to  whom  every  knee 
should  gladly  bow,  and  whom  every  tongue  should 
gratefully  confess  as  Lord. 

"  We  believe  in  the  helpful  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

^'  We  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  in  the  life  ever- 
lasting. 

"  We  believe  in  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  as 
the  safe  guide  of  religious  life  and  the  basis  of 
heavenly  hopes. 

"  We  believe  in  the  fellowship  of  Christians  in 
religious  work  and  worship,  and  in  our  common 


168       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

duty  to  preach  the  gospel  to  all  mankind.  And 
to  promote  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth." 

Conclusion  of  the  whole  matter.  In  so  com- 
plex a  matter  none  of  us  can  be  dogmatic;  but 
I  am  sure  that  the  non-liturgical  churches  would 
profit  if  they  would  recognize  more  fully  the 
educational  value  of  liturgy  and  creed;  and  set 
some  agency  at  work  to  secure,  for  improving  the 
services  in  each  church,  the  combined  wisdom  and 
skill  of  all  denominations.  Meanwhile,  the  pas- 
tor can  give  consideration  to  the  matter  and  make 
the  so-called  "  preliminary  services "  richer  in 
instruction  than  they  usually  are,  and  more 
suitable  to  the  aspirations  of  the  church. 

Let  none  of  us  allow  the  choir  or  the  fashion 
of  the  hour  to  prevent  the  fruitful  use  of  the 
liturgical  part  of  the  Sunday  worship. 

A  SUGGESTION  FOR  AN  "  ORDER  OF  SERVICES  " 

The  People's  Service  (or  Service  of  Worship) 

Organ. 

A  suitable  passage  of  scripture  read 
Call  to  worship.  by    the    pastor    or    leader    of    the 

service. 
Invocation  This   should   not  be   a  prayer   for 

or  anything  except  for  ,God's  blessing 

The  Lord's  Prayer.         in  the  worship  of  the  hour. 
A  hymn  of  praise.         All  standing. 
A  prayer  printed  in  the  hymn  book  in  which  all  join. 
The  choir. 

A  confession  of  faith.    All  standing, 
A  hymn  of  praise.  "  " 

The  pastoral  prayer. 


CREEDS  AND  LITURGIES  169 

Notices  and  collection  prefaced  by  suitable  words  about  the 
object  of  it. 

The  Pastoral  Service  (or  Service  of  Instruction) 

Scripture  Lesson. 
The  Sermon. 
Prayer  and  Hymn. 
Benediction. 

This  service,  it  will  be  seen,  has  two  parts  quite 
distinct.  The  first  should  be  complete  in  itself. 
It  should  prepare  the  way  but  should  not  antici- 
pate the  sermon. 

The  second  part  should  have  a  central  idea  in 
both  scripture  and  sermon. 


XVI. 

These  things  I  write  unto  thee  that  thou 
mayest  know  how  thou  oughtest  to  behave 
thyself  in  the  house  of  God. — I  Tim.  3 :  15. 

PEDAGOGY  IN  THE  MANAGEMENT  OF 
THE  CHXJRCH 

I  HAVE  said  that  there  is  an  educational  ele- 
ment in  all  the  pastoral  oversight.  Not  only 
is  he  an  educator  when  he  preaches,  but  in  all  the 
general  affairs  there  is  an  influence  that  goes  out 
from  the  way  things  are  organized  and  directed 
that  shapes  the  thought  of  the  young  and  fits  them 
to  carry  the  responsibilities  of  life  in  a  worthy 
way. 

It  is  said  that  the  framers  of  the  Bill  of  Rights 
in  Virginia  got  their  germinal  ideas  from  church 
government  in  some  New  England  church. 
Whether  that  be  true  or  not,  young  men  learn  in 
the  churches  where  they  belong  how  to  live  to- 
gether in  the  civil  relations  of  life.  There  is  busi- 
ness of  a  simple  sort  going  on  in  all  churches. 
Pastors  are  called,  officers  elected,  delegates 
chosen,  resolutions  passed,  plans  for  raising  money 
devised,  members  received  and  dismissed,  etc.,  etc. 
All  this  implies  discussion  and  votes.  It  puts 
upon  the  church  the  problem  of  living  together 
170 


MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  CHURCH   171 

and  unifying  ideas,  submitting  to  majorities,  and 
keeping  the  atmosphere  of  the  church  sweet  and 
wholesome  in  it  all.  Some  of  the  principles  that 
are  essential  to  this  are : 

The  spiritual  welfare  of  the  church  is  of  first 
importance.  No  special  method  of  work,  no  per- 
sonal ambitions,  no  pet  schemes  of  pastor  or  of 
people  should  outweigh  the  peaceable,  spiritual 
prosperity  of  the  church.  Better  be  without  a 
ne^  parsonage  than  have  one  that  costs  a  split  or 
a  seam  in  the  church.  Better  have  the  old  meeting 
house  and  harmony  than  a  fine  one  with  a  fuss. 
It  will  require  the  pastor  to  be  himself  patient, 
and  ready  to  heed  the  counsel  of  delay  rather 
than  hasten  his  project  and  divide  his  flock.  If 
you  are  the  one  who  is  ready  to  set  the  example 
of  yielding  and  putting  the  peace  of  the  church 
above  your  own  personal  schemes  you  will  not 
only  contribute  to  the  general  atmosphere  of 
peace,  but  it  will  give  you  a  leverage  in  your 
exhortations  to  others  to  do  the  same  thing.  In 
this  way  your  younger  members  will  learn  the 
lesson  of  true  community  life,  the  lesson  of  **  give 
and  take,'*  without  which  people  of  different 
tastes  cannot  live  together. 

This  is  especially  important  because  the  churcJi 
is  like  a  city  set  on  a  hill.  A  musical  society,  a 
Masonic  lodge,  a  social  club,  have  selected  mem- 
bership and  single  aims,  but  a  church  must  take 
rich  and  poor,  the  learned  and  the  unlettered,  the 


172       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

old  and  the  young,  the  male  and  the  female.  No 
such  diversity  exists  in  any  other  organization. 
But  yet  it  must  stand,  and  it  does  stand,  as  the 
pattern  of  social  management.  When  you  lead 
your  church  in  such  wise  and  peaceable  way,  you 
are  not  only  securing  the  welfare  of  the  church 
but  you  are  making  a  valuable  contribution  to 
public  education  in  civil  conduct  needed  for  the 
welfare  of  our  government. 

But  there  are  times  when  one  must  take  a  staiid 
against  stubborn  and  narrow-minded  men,  those 
who  mistake  their  wish  for  church  welfare  and 
who  mistake  backbone  for  conscience  and  willful- 
ness for  wisdom.  That  will  try  your  mettle. 
Pray  for  a  loving  spirit  yourself  and  remember 
that  you  are  not  the  church.  Others  must  share 
the  task  and  the  responsibility  of  deciding  impor- 
tant questions. 

Another  principle  is  that  the  whole  church 
stand  on  a  common  level  of  membership.  That 
is,  every  man  and  woman  of  mature  age  has  a 
right  to  be  heard  in  all  questions  of  importance, 
but  in  the  appointed  way.  There  is  no  aristocracy 
that  may  exclude  from  notice  the  opinion  of  hum- 
blest man  or  woman  from  a  fair  consideration. 
To  recognize  this  at  all  times  is  a  great  educating 
influence  in  emphasizing  the  brotherhood  of  the 
kingdom. 

This  does  not  imply  that  all  are  equal  in 
wisdom    or    efficiency.      The    old    idea    is    still 


MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  CHURCH   173 

the  true  one — "  Thou  shalt  provide  out  of  all 
the  people  able  men,  such  as  fear  God,  men 
of  truth,  hating  covetousness ;  and  place  such 
over  them."  (Ex.  18:20.)  This  was  confirmed 
in  the  New  Testament  times  by  those  who 
knew  the  value  of  the  Old  Testament  principle. 
**  Look  ye  out  from  among  you  seven  men  of 
honest  report,  full  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  wis- 
dom whom  we  may  appoint  over  this  business.'* 
(Acts  7:3.) 

This  is  the  republican  form  of  government.  It 
puts  responsibility  upon  such  as  are  competent.  It 
requires  them  to  have  the  sanction  of  the  church, 
and  inferentially  the  hearty  support  and  respect  of 
the  church.  No  good  influence  goes  out  from 
"passing  honors  around."  Positions  in  the 
church  are  not  "  honors,"  though  they  are  honor- 
able. They  are  trusts  committed,  responsibilities 
imposed.  At  the  same  time  it  is  well  to  have  recur- 
ring periods  when  new  men  may  be  asked  to  take 
the  work.  This  gives  opportunity  to  develop  new 
men  and  to  relieve  some  of  work  they  have 
carried  a  long  time.  This  is  an  educative  measure 
for  it  not  only  uses  new  men  but  it  teaches  that 
office  is  not  a  class  distinction.  Indeed,  the  term 
"  office  "  is  best  honored  by  not  using  it.  Better 
say  a  man  is  asked  to  do  a  certain  "  work  "  than 
to  say  he  is  elected  to  an  "  office."  An  **  office  " 
may  become  nothing  but  an  ''honorary  degree" 
like  D.D.  on  the  pastor;  which  may  signify  vari- 


174       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

ous  degrees  of  honor  between  a  *'  Dead  Dog " 
and  real  "  Doctor  of  Divinity." 

Another  principle  is  that  each  member  he  taught 
to  do  his  part  financially.  Paul  wrote,  "  Let 
every  one  of  you  lay  by  in  store  as  God  has  pros- 
pered him."  (I  Cor.  i6.)  "No  idlers  in  the 
church  "  is  the  motto.  Mr.  Spurgeon  used  to  say, 
"  All  at  it,  and  at  it  all  the  time."  It  is  not  left  to 
the  pastor  to  control  the  financial  matters  of  the 
church,  but  he  can  do  his  part  toward  securing  a 
method  of  support  that  is  both  correct  in  spirit  and 
educational  in  effect.  The  "  pew  renting  "  system 
has  one  good  influence.  It  gathers  the  family  in 
one  place  and  emphasizes  the  family  as  a  center  of 
religious  life.  Any  system  is  deficient  that  leaves 
the  congregation  to  scatter  promiscuously  about 
the  house.  But  the  fixing  of  prices  on  the  pews 
and  putting  them  in  public  places  is  bad  all  the 
way  through.  The  evil  begins  when  a  stranger 
enters  the  vestibule.  He  sees  there  what  amounts 
to  a  plutocratic  chart  of  the  congregation.  Here 
in  those  center  pews,  not  too  far  front,  are  the 
"  nabobs,"  up  there  in  the  corner  are  the  "  bobs  " 
of  the  church,  and  over  on  the  sides  and  rear  are 
the  "  common  folk." 

Then  the  people  are  tempted  to  draw  the  line 
of  wealth,  and  classify  the  congregation  accord- 
ing to  the  size  of  the  pew  rentals.  That  hurts 
the  good  nature  of  the  church. 

Further  than  this,  the  system  is  seldom  success- 


MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  CHURCH      175 

ful.  It  is  the  most  popular  failure  in  the  world. 
It  is  nearly  always  supplemented  by  an  appeal  in 
some  way  to  the  voluntary  contributions  of  the 
people,  the  final  resort  at  the  end  of  the  year 
being  to  that  appeal.  As  a  business  affair,  if  there 
was  no  other  reason,  it  should  for  this  be  sup- 
planted by  the  voluntary  system. 

This  latter  method  should  first  be  constantly 
attended  to  by  yearly  every-member  canvass  if 
necessary.  Every  new  member  should  be  expected 
to  make  a  subscription  and  pay  it.  It  may  be 
weekly,  monthly,  or  quarterly,  but  it  should  be 
reliable  and  generous. 

This  enables  the  church  to  know  how  well  its 
needs  are  provided  for,  and  to  "cut  their  coat 
according  to  the  cloth."  But  the  most  important 
thing  about  it  is  the  educative  influence.  The 
young  folks,  and  even  the  children,  should  be 
taught  by  precept,  by  explanation,  and  by  the 
example  of  their  parents  that  churches  must  be 
supported;  that  ministers'  families  live  on  victuals, 
not  on  visions;  that  preachers'  boys  want  coats, 
hats,  and  shoes;  and  preachers'  girls  want  dresses 
and  bonnets  and  gaiters.  Children  should  never 
be  allowed  to  hear  complaints  about  the  "  cost  of 
the  church."  But  Sunday  morning  should  be  the 
time  to  "  bring  an  offering  "  and  "  enter  into  his 
gates  with  thanksgiving,  and  into  his  courts  with 
praise." 

I  have  in  my  own  pastorate  seen  little  boys 


176       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

begin  their  contributions,  a  few  cents  a  week, 
delighted  to  be  reckoned  among  the  helpers;  in- 
crease their  amounts  as  their  wages  grew  in  size; 
then  enter  business  for  themselves,  become  pros- 
perous, and  give  hundreds  of  dollars  yearly,  be- 
cause the  system  itself,  independent  of  any 
extraneous  pressure,  had  educated  them  in 
their  "  reasonable  service."  The  pew-renting 
system  leaves  it  all  with  the  father  and  he  pays 
by  check  with  no  educational  influence  what- 
ever. When  he  does  this  his  sons  are  non- 
contributors. 

I  cannot  speak  too  emphatically  in  urging  the 
value  of  a  system  that  educates  the  young  for 
their  work  and  responsibility.  What  is  true  of 
the  support  of  the  church  at  home  applies  with 
equal  force  to  the  system  of  providing  for  the 
missionary  work.  This  should  be  a  constant,  not 
fluctuating  system.  But  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
chapter  on  motives  it  should  have  intelligent  inter- 
est in  the  work  of  missionaries.  That  implies 
some  sort  of  regular,  interesting  information  to 
all  the  church  about  the  Mission  fields.  The  col- 
lection plate  with  no  information  makes  a  very 
feeble  appeal  to  anybody.  If  we  degenerate  to  the 
plane  of  simply  "  making  the  budget "  it  will  soon 
rob  us  of  any  true  partnership  in  the  great  under- 
taking of  Christ. 

Since  these  aifxiirs  are  necessary  to  the  spiritual 
interests  of  the  church  they  are  to  he  undertaken 


MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  CHURCH   177 

with  prayer,  and  carried  on  with  as  fine  an  ethical 
spirit  as  the  affairs  of  a  revival  meeting. 

You  will  be  asking  how  to  bring  about  these 
conditions  where  they  do  not  already  exist. 

A  wise  maxim  is,  ''Never  launch  a  ship  until 
you  have  sounded  the  water  to  see  if  it  is  deep 
enough.  Never  try  to  cross  a  bar  until  you  know 
the  tide  is  fidl  enough  to  carry  your  ship  safely 
over!' 

Preach  about  your  plan  before  you  make  any 
definite  steps  toward  it.  Turn  conversation  toward 
that  subject  when  with  your  most  loyal  men. 
When  the  tide  is  high  enough  let  your  Advisory 
Committee,  if  you  have  one,  talk  it  over.  Avoid 
committing  yourself  to  it  so  strongly  that  it  will 
appear  as  a  defeat  of  your  wish  if  it  does  not  meet 
with  immediate  approval.  Be  patient.  Truth  will 
win  if  it  has  time.  Christian  people  see  alike 
after  they  have  thought  things  through.  Thus 
your  church  will  be  a  self -perpetuating  school  of 
method  and  munificence  as  well  as  a  successful 
preaching  platform. 


XVII 


Front  a  babe  thou  hast  known  the  sacred 
writings,  which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise 
unto  salvation,  through  faith  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus.— II  Tim.  3 :  15. 


EVANGELISTIC  PEDAGOGY 

THERE  is  a  use  of  this  word  *' evangelism " 
to  describe  what  has  no  relation  to  educa- 
tion. In  that  use  it  means  sermons  and  agencies 
that  are  immediately  effective  in  getting  people  to 
submit  themselves  to  the  Savior,  and  to  openly 
confess  their  faith.  Such  endeavors  obtain  results 
with  some  people  that  never  could  be  attained  by 
any  other  methods.  For  some  people  are  so  made 
up  that  they  cannot  of  themselves  come  to  a 
decision.  They  are  like  loaded  guns,  needing 
something  to  fire  them  off;  some  percussion  cap 
to  ignite  their  powder.  Blessed  is  the  man  who 
can  be  the  cap  for  that  service.  I  am  not  to  dis- 
cuss that  kind  of  evangelism  here. 

But  there  is  another  use  of  the  word  to  describe 
in  one  word  all  the  varied  agencies  and  methods 
that  unite  to  bring  people  to  a  personal  faith  in 
Jesus,  but  with  special  emphasis  on  the  intellectual 
element.  It  includes  all  forms  of  teaching  Chris- 
tian truth. 

178 


EVANGELISTIC  PEDAGOGY        179 

This  part  of  the  ministers'  work  is  the  more 
important  for  the  reason  that  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  all  those  who,  in  the  past  centuries  as  well 
as  those  in  this  present  age,  have  come  to  their 
place  in  the  church  have  come  in  a  much  less  spec- 
tacular way  than  that  which  accompanies  the  first 
agency  mentioned  in  this  chapter. 

This  method  to  bring  men  to  faith  implies 
that  truth  is  to  reach  the  mind  by  the  same  chan- 
nels that  it  comes  in  other  departments  of  life. 
That  is  by  gradual  approaches,  and  finally  by  the 
compelling  power  of  conviction  as  to  duty  and 
privilege.  People  cannot  be  educated  into  faith, 
but  they  can  and  must  be  educated  up  to  it.  The 
parable  of  the  "  Sower,"  as  it  is  called  as  given  in 
'Matthew  13  reflects  this  truth.  The  seed  is  the 
word  of  the  gospel;  the  soil  is  the  human  mind; 
the  harvest  is  dependent  on  the  condition  of  the 
soil.  The  minister  now  has  a  twofold  work.  He 
sows  the  seed,  but  he  must  also  prepare  the 
soil. 

In  this  preparation  of  the  soil  some  great  facts 
must  be  recognized.  First,  there  is  a  stage  in  the 
lives  of  all  young  folks  in  which  they  are  simply 
taking  in  what  is  given  them  in  unquestioning 
confidence.  The  lowest  foundation-stones  of  their 
religion  are  laid  at  that  time.  The  beginnings  of 
an  effective  evangelism  are  made  then.  If  a  child 
gets  an  idea  of  God  at  that  time  which  is  chiefly 
characterized  by  his  omniscience,  and  his  holiness, 


180       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

and  his  severity;  if  he  is  one  to  stand  afar  off 
from  and  worship;  if  he  inspires  awe  and  per- 
haps fear  it  will  affect  their  whole  attitude  toward 
religion  in  after  years.  One  little  girl  sent  her 
pet  puppy  back  into  the  house  when  she  was 
going  out  with  the  remark,  *'  It  is  enough  to  have 
God  tagging  me  around  all  the  time  without  hav- 
ing you  along."  She  had  been  made  to  think 
that  omnipresence  was  the  main  characteristic  of 
God.  Another  child  had  seen  in  the  Sunday 
School  room  a  great  human  eye  painted  on  the 
wall  above  the  teacher's  desk.  It  was  to  him  the 
chief  characteristic  of  God  that  he  could  see  all 
that  is  going  on,  and  it  was  not  agreeable  to  a 
boy  who  sometimes  wanted  to  do  things  not 
right. 

If  there  is  one  thing  that  is  important  for  the 
minister  to  guard  it  is  the  influence  he  may  be 
exerting  on  the  minds  of  the  young  concerning 
the  character  of  God  and  of  Jesus.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  in  his  prayers  and  his  selections  of 
hymns  in  public  worship.  To  pray  with  a  sense 
of  awe,  and  with  great  high-sounding  phrases,  as 
if  prayer  was  an  exercise  in  rhetoric  or  an  ex- 
amination in  theology,  is  almost  sure  to  make  the 
young  afraid  of  God.  The  Roman  Catholic  sys- 
tem has  that  great  weakness.  The  invocations  of 
saints  have  the  effect  to  make  people  think  that 
Jesus  is  unapproachable  directly.  Some  views  of 
the  atonement  have  the  same  effect  in  respect  to 


EVANGELISTIC  PEDAGOGY        181 

God.  Some  hymns  would  scare  an  angel  away 
from  the  throne. 

Jesus  was  not  unapproachable.  The  children 
were  not  afraid  of  him.  The  mothers  brought 
their  children  to  him.  And  if  he  was  thus  ap- 
proachable then  we  have  no  reason  to  think  that 
now  he  has  taken  on  so  much  dignity  that  we  must 
come  tremblingly  to  him.  The  writer  of  Hebrews 
said,  "  Come  boldly  to  a  throne  of  grace,  that  we 
may  find  mercy  and  grace  to  help  in  time  of 
need." 

And  Jesus'  presentation  of  God  is  not  under  the 
name  of  king  or  ruler  or  captain  but  Our  Father 
in  heaven.  That  word  gathers  up  in  one  the 
largest  and  loveliest  conceptions  of  God  that  our 
language  can  contain.  And  that  is  the  color  of 
the  glass  through  which  we  are  to  look  at  him. 

I  am  not  saying  that  we  are  to  talk  to  all  chil- 
dren as  "Jesus'  little  lambs"  for  they  are  not. 
But  we  are  to  talk  about  him  as  the  Good  Shep- 
herd of  all  his  flock. 

Secondly.  There  comes  another  stage  in  child- 
life  when  they  begin  to  ask  Why?  They  are 
animated  interrogation  marks.  Before  we  are 
aware  of  it  they  are  asking  the  great  questions 
of  theology.  And  they  are  quietly  obtaining 
their  answers  from  what  they  hear  in  the  pulpit. 
There  is  a  swift  logic  in  the  child's  mind.  It  is 
said  of  a  Chinese  boy  who  was  being  taught  Logic 
that  the  teacher  gave  him  these  propositions  and 


182       PEDAGOGY  FOR  MINISTERS 

asked  him  to  give  the  conclusion:  "All  men  are 
mortal."  "  The  Emperor  is  a  man/'  The  boy 
replied,  *'  Then  he  ought  to  repent  right  away." 
He  jumped  over  the  logical  conclusion  and  went 
on  in  his  own  mind  to  another  one  drawn  from 
the  whole  series. 

The  minister  must  make  his  sermons  in  some 
sense  like  the  talk  at  one  end  of  a  telephone.  It 
is  one-sided  to  a  listener.  He  must  answer  the 
questions  his  auditors  are  inwardly  asking. 

He  must  lead  their  minds  over  the  course  they 
need  to  follow  in  their  thinking  to  a  just  conclu- 
sion. And  especially  lead  them  to  a  knowledge 
of  those  truths  that  are  fundamental  to  any  deci- 
sion to  become  followers  of  Jesus.  It  will  not 
do  for  him  to  dogmatize.  He  must  indirectly 
reason.  He  must  habitually  give  reasons  for  his 
statements.  If  you  examine  Paul's  letters  you 
will  be  greatly  impressed  by  the  frequency  of  the 
words  "for"  and  "therefore."  "For"  gener- 
ally gives  the  reason  of  a  statement  just  preced- 
ing. An  inquiring  young  man  if  he  asked  for  the 
reasons  of  Paul's  most  positive  statements  would 
find  them  in  the  connection. 

Thirdly,  Then  there  comes  a  stage  when  the 
young  will  be  asserting  their  individual  independ- 
ence— "  individuating  " — themselves.  That  is  the 
time  when  they  sit  apart  from  the  family  pew, 
choose  new  companions,  differ  from  their  parents 
in  many  things,  and  especially  decline  to  confer 


EVANGELISTIC  PEDAGOGY        183 

with  the  pastor  about  their  religious  thoughts. 
They  are  brooding  over  great  things.  It  need 
give  no  great  anxiety  if  the  work  has  been  well 
done  before.  This  stage  is  a  necessity.  Faith 
must  be  personal.  There  is  no  second-hand  faith 
possible.  It  is  the  greatest  honor  and  the 
greatest  responsibility  that  every  individual  soul 
has  a  place  and  a  standing  before  God.  "  Every 
one  must  give  account  of  himself  to  God."  And 
hence  every  one  must  have  his  own  faith  toward 
God  and  toward  him  whom  God  hath  sent. 

There  is  a  passage  in  John  (8:47)  that  has  a 
very  deep  suggestion :  "He  that  is  of  God 
heareth  the  words  of  God.  For  this  cause  ye  hear 
them  not,  because  ye  are  not  of  God." 

What  does  he  mean  when  he  says,  "  Ye  are  not 
of  God  ? "  I  think  he  means  that  they  did  not 
have  any  desire  to  know  about  God  or  to  do  as 
he  wishes.  Not  having  any  such  desire  they 
would  not  see  any  worth  in  Jesus  nor  care  about 
his  words.  But  if  there  had  been  a  deep  desire 
to  know  God,  a  hunger  in  soul  for  his  truth  and 
his  way  of  life,  then  Jesus*  word  would  have 
been  bread  to  them. 

Therefore,  giving  people  the  right  and  winning 
idea  of  God  so  that  they  have  a  desire  to  know 
more  of  him  is  predetermining  their  reception  of 
Jesus.  It  is  so  to  speak  loading  the  scales  before 
they  know  it  so  that  when  the  time  comes  for 
them  to  make  their  life  choice  of  leadership  they 


184        PEDAGOGY  FOR  INIINISTERS 

will  not  need  to  unlearn  things  they  have  imbibed 
about  the  Father  in  heaven  before  they  can  accept 
his  Son.  The  minister  v^ho  is  thus  teaching  the 
young — the  very  young — and  is  encouraging  the 
parents  to  thus  teach,  is  doing  the  first  things  in 
true  evangelism. 

In  this  period  when  choice  is  to  be  made  it  will 
be  made  in  accord  with  the  deepest  interests  and 
moral  tastes.  But  these  tastes  have  been  pre- 
determined by  the  earliest  teachings  about  God, 
and  about  his  Son.  Such  teaching  is  then  a  large 
part  of  the  world's  evangelism.  And  he  who  does 
it  need  not  feel  himself  left  out  of  the  list  of 
real  harvesters  in  the  Lord's  field. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


BIBLE  STUDY,  DEVOTIONAL,  Etc. 

A.    T,   ROBERTSON,  P.P.,  LLP. 

Studies  in  the  New  Testament 

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REV.  JOSEPH  T.  GIBSON,  P.P. 

Jesus  Chri^  :  The  Unique  Rcvealer  of  God 

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The  author  has  sought  to  see,  and  aid  others  in  seeing 
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only  the  infalliable  guide  to  faith  and  duty,  but  the  authentic 
chronicle  of  the  earthly  life  of  our  lyord.  Dr.  Gibson  has 
harmonized  the  Gospels  and  from  them  constructed  a  graphic 
narrative  which,  contrives,  to  re-limn  an  old  piccure  with 
freshness  and  charm. 

REV.    GEO.  H.    YOUNG,  M. A.,  AssU Prof,  Rhtttrie  and PuhlU 

■■■~~~~~~~~^~~~~^-~-^— ~— — ^-'    Speakingt  Colgat*  Univ*rtity 

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as  the  'Teacher  come  from  God,'  and  revealing  in  life,  con- 
tent of  instruction  and  method  of  presentation  the  will  of 
the  Father." — Review  and  Expositor, 

W.  BEATTY  JENNINGS,   P.P. 

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pleasure,  war,  the  drink  traffic,  etc,  and  shown  to  be  the  sura 
and  only  solution  of  the  problems  of  society. 

ROBERT  FREEMAN 

The  Hour  of  Prayer 

Helps  to  Devotion  When  Absent  from  CHutclf. 
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BIBLE  STUDY 


JAMES  M.    GRAT,     P.P.  Dean  of  Moody  Bible  Institute 

Christian  Workers'  Commentary  on  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  Cloth,  net,  $2.25. 

"At  last!  A  truly  competent  commentary  on  the  whole 
Bible  in  one  volume,  and  for  a  price  within  the  reach  of  all. 
These  are  desiderata  long  agreed  upon,  but  never,  in  a  really 
popular  sense,  met  before.  Dr.  Gray  brought  to  the  task  of 
producing  such  a  book  the  powers  at  their  maturity  that  have 
made  him  one  of  the  foremost  Bible  teachers  of  the  English- 
speaking  world.  Clearness  of  thought;  the  mastery  of  con- 
densed expression  without  the  sacrifice  of  lucidity;  immense 
.industry;  adequate  scholarship;  thoroughness;  a  joyous 
trust  in  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures." — Dr.  C.  I,  ScoHeld,  in 
S.S.  Times. 

ROBERT  E.  SPEER,   P.P. 

John's  Gospel 

The  Greatest  Book  in  the  World.  Leatherette, 
net  60c. 

A  study  of  John's  Gospel  by  a  man  whose  far-reaching  in- 
fluence is  one  of  the  great  formative  forces  of  religious  life 
In  America.  The  material  here  brought  together  has  already 
been  "tried-out"  by  Dr.  Speer  at  some  important  student  con- 
ferences with  conspicuous  success. 

G.    CAMPBELL  MORGAN 

Living  Messages  of  the  Books  of  the 

Bible,  Vol.  I.      Old  Testament— Genesis  to  Malachi 

Living  Messages  of  the  Books  of  the 

Bible,  Vol.  11.  New  Testament— Matthew-Re\  elation 

8vo,  cloth,  each  net  $1.25. 

This  popular  four  volume  set  is  now  published  in  two,  each 
volume  containing  twice  the  amount  previously  included. 
This  work  is  quite  distinct  from  the  author's  "Analyzed 
Bible."  "EJach  book  is  treated  as  a  unit,  having  a  message  or 
messages  for  our  own  times." — The  United  Presbyterian. 

MARCUS  POPS,   P.P. 

The  Parables  of  Our  Lord 

A  new  edition.  In  one  volume.  International 
Leaders'  Library.    Net  50c ;  postage  extra. 

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writers  of  our  times.  His  writings,  while  scholarly,  are  at  tha 
•ame  time  simple  in  statement,  practical  in  purpose,  and  de- 
vout in  spirit." — Religious  Telescope. 

W.  O.    E.    OESTERLEY,   P.P.  Warden  of  the  society  tf 

■'  the  Aptcrapha 

The  Books  of  the  Apocrypha 

Their  Origin,  Teaching  and  Contents.    Net  $3.00. 

The  author  has  presented  a  highly  satisfactory^  piece  of 
work.  Besides  what  would  be  naturally  looked  for  in  a  work 
of  this  sort — an  introduction  to  the  books  of  the  Apocrypha, 
account  of  their  contents,  date  of  writing,  etc., — this  book  con- 
tains an  astonishing  mass  of  useful  and  interesting  matter  of 
•cientific  value. 


PRAYER,  DEVOTIONAL,  Etc. 


/.   STUART  HOLDEN,    M.A.     Auth,rof^'Th*Lif,,fFuU*rPur- 
'  fust"  «  Tht  Prici  •f  Ftwtr,"  stu 

The  Confidence  of  Faith 

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eternal.  The  troublous  days  through  which  the  world  is  now 
passing,  has  brought  perplexity  and  sorrow  to  many  loving 
hearts.  For  all  such,  as  well  as  for  believers  everywhere,  Mr. 
Holden's  new  book  breathes  a  message  of  solace  and  enheart- 
enment. 

IV.  H.  GRIFFITH  THOMAS,  P.P.  Wycliffe  CoUezt 

— ^■^■~'~""— "— — — '^-^— — —  Toranto,  Canada 

Grace  and  Power 

Some  Aspects  of  the  Spiritual  I^if  e.  Cloth,  net  $1.00. 

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The  ground  covered  is  that  of  the  possibilities  of  the  Chris- 
tian life,  of  the  provision  made  for  their  realization,  and  of 
the  protective  grace  flung  around  the  believer,  enabling  one 
to  hold  fast  to  his  ideals.  — Christian  Work, 

AUGUSTA  ALBERTSON 

Through  Gates  of  Pearl 

A  Vision  of  the  Heaven  Life.    Cloth,  net  $1.15. 

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appeals  to  the  reason  as  well  as  to  the  heart,  and  it  interprets 
Scripture  in  a  satisfying  way  accomplished  by  few  books  writ- 
ten by  lay-writers." — Book  News. 

J.    M.    CAMPBELL,    P.P.     Author  of"  Grow  OU  AUne  with  Me" 
^— — — — — — — — — ^— — ^  "Tht  Heart  of  tht  Gospel,"  etc. 

Prayer  in  Its  Present-Day  Aspects 

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history,  to  restate  certain  aspects  of  an  eternal  truth  in  the 
light  of  the  conditions  and  demands  of  these  perilous  times. 
Prayer  as  related  to  the  conception  of  God,  the  conception  of 
man,  bodily  healing,  spiritual  force,  natural  phenomena  and 
war,  are  some  of  the  issues  dealt  with  by  Dr.  Campbell.  A 
timely  and  valuable  treatise  on  the  highest  function  of  the  soul. 

JAMES  G.  K.  McCLURE,  P.P. 

Intercessory  Prayer  a  mighty  mrans(» 

New  Edition.    i2mo,  cloth,  net  50c. 

A  new  edition  of  this  helpful  work  of  glowing  faith  whidi 
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of  Christian  experience  and  convictions.  "Above  all,  it  is 
*»ue,  practical,  useful  and  inspiring." — Christian  Work. 


QUESTIONS  OF  THE  FAITH 


JAMES  H.  SNOWDEN,  D.D, 

The  Psychology  of  Religion 

8vo,  cloth,  net  $1.50. 

Psychology  is  one  of  the  most  rapidly  advancing  of  modern 
sciences,  and  Dr.  Snowden's  book  will  find  a  ready  welcome. 
While  especially  adapted  for  the  use  of  ministers  and  teach- 
ers, it  is  not  in  any  sense  an  ultra-academic  work.  This  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  material  forming  it  has  been 
delivered  not  only  as  a  successful  Summer  School  course,  but 
in  the  form  of  popular  lectures,  open  to  the  general  public. 

WILLIAM  HALLOCK  JOHNSON,  Ph.D.,  D.D. 

Prof*ss»r  of  Greek  and  New  Testament  Literature  in  Lincoln  University,  Fa. 

The  Christian  Faith  under  Modern 
Searchlight 

The  L.  P.  Stone  I^ectures,  Princeton.  Intro- 
duction by  Francis  I^.  Patton,  D.D.    Cloth,  net  $1.25. 

The  faith  which  is  to  survive  must  mot  only  be  a  traditional 
but  an  intelligent  faith  which  has  its  roots  in  reason  and  ex- 
perience and  its  blossom  and  fruit  in  character  and  good 
works.  To  this  end,  the  author  examines  the  fundamentals 
of  the  Christian  belief  in  the  light  of  to-day  and  reaches  the 
conclusion  that  every  advance  in  knowledge  establishes  its 
sovereign  claim  to  be  from  heaven  and  not  from  men, 

ANDREW  W.  ARCHIBALD,   D.D. 

Author  of  ^^The  Bible  Verified,"  ^^The  Trend  of  the  Centuries,"  etc. 

The  Modern  Man  Facing  the  Old 
Problems 

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A  thoughtful,  ably-conducted  study  in  which  those  prob- 
lems of  human  life,  experience  and  destiny,  which,  in  one 
form  or  another,  seem  recurrent  in  every  age,  are  examined 
from  what  may  be  called  a  Biblical  viewpoint.  That  is  to  szy, 
the  author  by  its  illuminating  rays,  endeavors  to  find  eluci- 
dation and  solution  for  the  difficulties,  which  in  more  or  less 
degree,  perplex  believer  and  unbeliever  alike. 

NOLAN  RICE   BEST  Editor  of  « The  Continent" 

Applied  Religion  for  Everyman 

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Nolan  Rice  Best  has  earned  a  well-deserved  reputation  in 
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antly-phrased editorials.  The  selection  here  brought  together 
represent  his  best  efforts,  and  contains  an  experienced  edi- 
tor's suggestions  for  the  ever-recurrent  problems  confronting 
Church  members  as  a  body,  and  as  individual  Christians.  Mr. 
Best  wields  a  facile  pen,  and  a  sudden  gleam  of  beauty,^  a 
difficult  thought  set  in  a  perfect  phrase,  or  an  old  idea  in- 
vested with  new  meaning  and  grace,  meets  one  at  every  turn 
of  the  page."— r;^^  Record  Herald. 


INSPIRATION  FOR  MEN 


ROBERT  W.  BOIWEIL 

After  College—What? 

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able,— anything  but  preachy — but  does  put  some  very  whole- 
some and  helpful  facts  in  such  form  as  to  grip  the  reader, 

HALFORD  E.  LUCCOCK 

Five-Minute  Shop-Talks 

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One  of  the  best  things  of  its  kind  yet  issued.  In  each 
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ploys terse,  epigrammatic  language  and  contrives  to  compress 
into  a  five-minute  talk  the  wisdom  and  counsel  of  a  fifty- 
minute  sermon.  Every  word  is  made  to  tell — to  tell  some- 
thing  worth   hearing   and  heeding. 

CHARLES  CARROLL  ALBERTSON 

Chapel  Talks 

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Practical  discourses  on  essential  subjects  delivered  in  vari- 
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Dartmouth,  Princeton,  Yale,  and  Virginia.  No  one  of  these 
sermons  required  more  than  twenty-five  minutes  to  deliver. 
They  are  characterized  by  earnest  argument,  familiar  illus- 
trations and  forceful  appeal. 

CORTLANDT    MYERS,     D.  D.  Author  of  » Real  Prayer." 
■ <' The  Real  Holy  Spirit,"  etc. 

The  Man  Inside 

A  Study  of  One's  Self.  By  Minister  at  Tremont 
.Temple,  Boston.    i2mo,  cloth,  net  50c. 

A  four-fold  study  of  the  inner  life  of  a  man,  in  which  the 
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make  him,  lift  him,  save  him,  and  move  him.  The  book  is 
prepared  in  bright,  interesting  fashion,  and  abundantly  fur- 
nished with  suitable  and  forceful  illustration. 

JOHN  T.  PARIS  PoPtilar-Price  Editions 

The  "Success  Books" 

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6oc.net  (postage  extra). 
Seeking  Success 
Men  Who  Made  Good 
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Dr.  J.  R.  Miller  says:  "Bright  and  short  and  full  of  illus- 
trations from  actual  life,  they  are  just  the  sort  that  will  help 
young  men  in  the  home  in.  school  among  associates  and  in 
business." 


SERMONS  AND  ADDRESSES 


/.    H.    JOWETT.    D.D.  Fifth  Av*nut  Prt,byUrian  Chunh 

Niw   York 

The  Whole  Armour  of  God 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.35. 

"This  popular  preacher  is,  not  only  by  his  own  people,  but 
also  by  large  numbers  of  others,  considered  the  very  greatest 
preacher.  He  is  possessed  of  a  rare  and  perhaps  unequalled 
combination  of  the  very  qualities  which  captivate.  His 
thoughts  are  always  expressed  in  the  simplest  possible  diction, 
so  that  their  crystalline  clearness  makes  them  at  once  appre- 
hended."— Christian  Evangelist. 

EDGAR  DE  WITT  JONES  Author  of  "Th*  Inn*r  Circh" 

The  Wisdom  of  God's  Fools 

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not  at  all  common  quality.  He  is  a  thinker  too;  and  brings 
to  his  thinking  a  lucidity  and  attractiveness  which  make  his 
presentation  of  great  truths  an  artistic,  as  well  as  an  inspiring 
achievement.  A  note  of  deep  spirituality  is  everywhere  mani- 
fest. 

FREDERICK  F.    SHANNON      Pastor  of  the  Reformed- Chunh-n- 
•  the- Heights,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

The  Enchanted  Universe 

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pastor's  appeals,  make  the  reading  of  his  latest  book,  not  only 
an  inspiring,  but  a  fascinating  exercise. 

GEORGE  fr.   TRUETT,  D.D.  Pastor  Firs/ Baptist 

' — ———————————  Church,  Dallas,  Tex. 

We  Would  See  Jesus  and  Other  Sermons 

Compiled  and  edited  by  J.  B.  Cranfill.    Net  $1.15. 

"One  of  the  greatest — many  would  say  the  greatest — of  all 
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tant books  of  sermons,  past  and  present,  and  deserves  a  place 
in  millions  of  homes." — Biblical  Recorder. 

BISHOP  CHARLES  EDWARD  CHENEY 

A  Neglected  Power 

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"Thoroughly  evangelical  in  spirit,  refreshing  in  Biblical 
truth  and  abounding  in  helpful  ministrations  for  every  day 
life." — Evangelical  Mes^enger^ 


Date  Due 

f) 

1    1012  01028  0909 


